Betrothal
by lackey H
Summary: An odd Naruto pairing, presented in a hopefully believable way. Check last chapter for important Authors Message
1. Fiance

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto Fanfiction  
  
Chapter 1 - Fiancé  
  
"What do you want me to do?" questioned a female voice, it's words echoing off of the bizarre carvings and statues that filled the council chamber. The speaker was a blonde haired girl, clad in a rather badly fitting dusky brown jacket and thin body-netting. Whilst the outfit looked impractical and rather badly co-ordinated it was, perhaps, amongst the best clothing choices to wear in this hellish place.  
  
This place being situated more or less in the middle of a small desert, surrounded by miles upon miles of lifeless sand-filled wastelands and constantly suffering from baking hot days and icicle cold nights. Learning to use chakra to heat one's own body was a simple thing, learning to use chakra to keep cool however, was not. Thus it was that the denizens of the village of Hidden Sand often wore clothing which was chosen primarily to keep themselves relatively cool rather than for looks or comfort.  
  
Around the girl was a semicircular table, the flat edge facing her and the other side populated with various elder council members. The council had been the ones to run the village after the discovery of the Kazekage's death, of course they would have to choose a suitable replacement but as of yet none had been deemed suitable.  
  
"The honour of the sand has been tarnished," began one elderly man – obviously he had been a ninja in his youth as he had around his neck a strip of cloth with a small metal plate bearing an engraving of an hourglass upon it. It was, in fact, a ninja head-protector, something that only Ninja were allowed to possess.  
  
To his right a slightly younger, though not by much, woman nodded her head in agreement. "Thanks to the actions of certain individuals, our ninja were duped into entering a small scale war with those from the Hidden Leaf village," She began, her voice dry and croaking, "As a result, we have been forced to re- negotiate the peace agreements between our two villages."  
  
The girl blinked in astonishment, everyone knew about the peace agreements that had existed before the attack on the Leaf, but in the village of hidden Sand it was practically taboo to even mention their existence. For someone as respected as a council member to speak of them was, well, it was unheard of! Fortunately, a few of the council members noticed her shock and nodded silently, finally one of them raised a hand and cut the speaking woman off – much to her annoyance.  
  
"Fellow council, I see we are fast losing our audience with this talk, perhaps it would be wiser to just tell young Temari what we expect of her and leave it at that." He stated, nodding towards the lone girl as he did so.  
  
Temari bowed her head slightly in thanks, the speaker who had just cut a way though what could have been hours of talk was the head of the council himself. "Please," The young Sand-nin began, "I am a ninja of the Sand, it does not matter what the reasons are – if you have a task for me then I shall perform it dutifully."  
  
The council head nodded at Temari's words. "A highly commendable attitude. Very well then, Temari, in essence we of the Sand have come to an agreement with the Leaf. In a, how shall we put this, a gesture of promise we have agreed to unite a few aspects of both villages." The head paused from his speech and looked up at the sky through the large skylight mounted in the ceiling. Finally he spoke once again. "In short, Temari, we have agreed to setting up a possible marriage between a Sand-nin and a Leaf-nin."  
  
'That was it,' thought Temari, she had expected that some sort of peace gesture would come about as soon as she heard mention of peace agreements but for it to be something like this...  
  
A small, tiny part of Temari's mind suddenly turned around and shot a question to her general consciousness. 'Why am I here?' The majority of her mind pondered over the question for a moment before coming up with an answer that was, in Temari's eyes, not good. Her eyes widened slightly at the realisation of the implications, an act the did not go unnoticed by many members of the council  
  
"Ah, I see that you understand. However, Temari, there is a little more to it but, unfortunately, it is something that has not yet been completely agreed upon so I cannot tell you about it yet." Stated the head, looking around at the rest of the council for a few moments before finally staring at Temari with a piercing gaze. "You leave in two days Temari, two days."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari wasn't entirely too sure what she did for the first few hours after she had been dismissed by the council, her body had been running on automatic whilst her mind continued to reel in shock. When she did start paying attention to her surroundings she was rather unworried about finding herself in the villages largest hot spring bath-house. Mentally she thanked the first Kazekage for deciding to found the village in an area filled with hot – and some rather cool - springs.  
  
After booking a locker and making her way into one of the small changing rooms Temari quickly changed into a light smock of the sort that most of the female villagers liked wearing when they bathed. Mostly they wore it because after the bathing was done, it prevented sand from sticking to their damp skin when they went to get dried and changed.  
  
It wasn't long until she was sitting, soaking in one of the slightly cooler pools of spring-fed water. Silently washing the tension she felt away.  
  
"Why did they pick me?" She whispered, staring at the small artificial waterfall through which the spring water entered the pool. The Hidden Sand village was particularly proud of it's bath-houses, and tended towards making them more ornamental than they should really be. Then again, it wasn't like they had much else they could decorate that wouldn't be wrecked when the next sandstorm swept though.  
  
Unfortunately, there was no answer to her question beyond the gentle sound of the miniature waterfall in action.  
  
Eventually a thought wormed it's way into her mind. 'I'm going to miss this when I'm gone'  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Packing, that was something Temari found easy. After all, it wasn't like she had a lot of possessions really, only a few sets of clothes, some materials to repair her fan and a small chest full of scrolls and smaller weapons – like kunai for instance. Of course, it helped that Kankuro had decided to help out with the packing. Not that Temari had given him any real option of saying 'no' to her request for assistance of course.  
  
"So..." began the slightly younger puppet-using ninja, his voice slightly hollow and rather irritated. "Gonna get married to a Leaf-nin huh?" It was quite, quite easy to see that he didn't particularly approve of the idea. "Any idea which one?"  
  
Temari quickly stuffed her last few items of clothing into a reasonable sized travelling trunk before turning to her brother. "No, it'll probably be that Uchiha boy though – or maybe the Hyuuga one. Both of those belong to families big enough to be worth something in a political marriage like this."  
  
Kankuro snorted in distaste, the Hyuuga guy had been – in his view – nothing more than a strong ninja with a stick up his rear. He hated people who thought they were beyond the reach of others like that. Well... Gaara was beyond the reach of others, but he never made an issue of it – not that he made an issue of anything really. "Hey, for all you know they might want to hook you up with the guy who beat you in the exam – chika-something wasn't it?"  
  
"Shikamaru," Corrected the older girl, as she slammed the trunk's lid shut and locked it. "He wouldn't be so bad I guess, he's intelligent, that's more than I can say for most of the other Leaf-nin."  
  
"Well, look at it this way," started Kankuro, as he continued to neatly arrange Temari's scrolls in order to make sure they didn't get damaged in transit. "At worst, you could end up with that ugly fat guy – or the bug guy, Shino or whatever his name was." He smirked as Temari recoiled from him in disgust. It was a secret known only to her closest family that Temari was, in fact, scared of insects.  
  
"Ugh! Don't even suggest something like that!" She half-shrieked, shuddering in remembrance of the sight of all those bugs crawling over the leaf-nin's skin. "I think I'd kill myself before having to live with, let alone marry, someone like him!"  
  
Kankuro nodded, Temari probably would kill herself rather than live with the bug using ninja. At that moment a particularly nasty thought crept into his mind. "Temari?" he asked cautiously. "You will be coming back eventually, right?" not that he would miss her, not at all, she'd been gone for long periods on missions before but... She'd always come back from those mission. Life without Temari would be... well, Kankuro didn't much like the idea of it. Especially if it meant that he'd be alone with Gaara – granted Gaara had become more, well, more human recently but still. Gaara was still frightening. Temari looked at her younger brother for a moment and bowed her head. "I..." She began, her voice slightly choked. "I don't know." A tear rolled down her cheek, eventually falling from her face to splash against the dusty floor of her room. She'd always known that eventually those she knew would leave - through death most likely, but she knew that no matter what happened she'd always be one of the Sand. "K-Kankuro... they..." She gulped and lifted her head to stare, with tear filled eyes, at her brother. "They said I won't be part of the Sand anymore!"  
  
Kankuro gasped in shock. To all those ninja who lived, worked and died here the Sand was everything. Their honour was the honour of the Sand, the Sand was their family – their homes – their lives. To be removed from the Sand, for whatever reason was.. well, it was unthinkable! Even the few missing- nin the village had were still considered part of the Sand, albeit in a rather dishonourable way but still...  
  
"Temari..." he whispered, his voice barely a sigh. Shuffling forwards he opened his arms and enveloped his sister in an awkward embrace. Sand-nin rarely showed their emotions, and it was rarer still that they needed emotional support but, this was his sister, and Kankuro knew that this had hit her hard. "Even if you leave the Sand, even if you become on of the Leaf, I'll... I'll always know you to be my sister."  
  
Yes, that was a good line, he'd heard it in one of the plays he often went to watch – hell, he'd had to act that line with his puppet in a puppet-play he'd helped put on when he was younger. It had gone down rather well actually, Sand villagers were quite fond of watching a good play or similar entertainment when the sandstorms outside were too strong for anyone to be in.  
  
The blonde-haired ninja girl sniffed a few times before pulling free of Kankuro's rough hug. "Th-thankyou..." She sniffed, as she wiped away most of her tears with the back of her hand. "I... I'm going to miss you brother."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
There were no real farewells when Temari left the village, escorted by a trio of Jounin to make sure she didn't shirk her duty, as well as Gaara who had, strangely enough, declared that he would go along also. There was nothing particularly special about any of the three Jounin, other than the fact that they looked incredibly nervous. Then again, everyone looked nervous when Gaara was around, including his sister Temari and his brother Kankuro though they usually didn't get quite as nervous as everyone else.  
  
At the entrance to the village only Kankuro stood there to wave his sister off, not expecting to see her anytime soon – if ever again. Temari felt stung by this lack of affection, but then, most of the village held a slight grudge towards her and Kankuro – believing that if they had done their job properly then the Sand would have buried the Leaf instead of failing and losing their honour.  
  
The five of them – Gaara, herself and three Jounin, were travelling by a camel-driven cart rather than on foot as they normally would. This was mostly because they had to take Temari's belongings along with them, whilst this would not normally have been a problem, it would have slowed them down enough to miss the time-scale they had been set. After all, they were only going half-way. Once they had reached the pre-arranged meeting point Temari and her belongings would be neatly passed over to an escort of Leaf-nin, who would then take her the rest of the way to the Leaf village.  
  
Temari sighed and looked back at the dwindling shape of Hidden Sand village that was now quite far back in the distance. Would she ever set her eyes upon the glorious shape of her home ever again?  
  
Somehow, she didn't think that she would.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A hand gently shook her, rousing her from the light doze she had fallen into. The rocking motion of the cart was unfamiliar to her and it had quickly led her into a dreamless slumber. Blinking her eyes a few times to clear away the spots she turned her head in the direction of the shaking and blinked once more. Gaara sat, cross legged, next to her on the cart – his hand pulling back from where he had been shaking her by the arm.  
  
"Sister." He stated, which promptly bought Temari into full consciousness quicker than any shaking could have done. Gaara never called her sister, it was always 'you' or 'Temari' never 'sister'. "Wake up. I will speak with you." Ah... now this was more like the old Gaara, he made orders and demands, nothing else. Still, Temari couldn't say that she was unhappy with her brothers recent nudging into the realms of social behaviour, it was, after all, a definite improvement.  
  
"Whu-"Temari groaned, pulling herself into a sitting position and suddenly feeling how stiff and sore her muscles were. She'd rather be in the Leaf village than on this cart – at least there she'd get to sleep in a decent bed. "What do you want to speak about?" She asked, before stretching out in a vast yawn.  
  
"You... will be gone soon." Began Gaara, who was obviously treading on unfamiliar mental and social grounds. "I... will be... upset when you go."  
  
That made Temari blink. "You mean, you'll miss me?" She asked, eyeing her brother warily. Just because Gaara was somewhat nicer now, didn't mean that he wasn't just as likely to go completely crazy as he had done many times in the past.  
  
Gaara stared at her with an unblinking gaze. "Yes." He stated simply, "I will... miss you."  
  
Moving slowly, so as not to startle Gaara, Temari carefully gave her brother a hug, one that was forced and incredibly tense, but a hug all the same. "Thankyou..." She whispered, "From you, that means... that means so much to me."  
  
"Why?" came the immediate response. "Why should that bring you such... happiness?"  
  
Temari had expected a question of that sort and already knew what she was going to say. "I makes me happy because... because, if you miss me when I'm gone, then it means you care about me." Suddenly she felt Gaara's hands brush against her back and she knew that Gaara was, in a simple and childlike way, giving her his best attempt at a hug in return. "Gaara," whispered the elder girl. "I'll... I'll miss you too." She whispered, her eyes feeling slightly damp as she held back a few tears.  
  
Gaara, of course, said nothing. Suddenly, the cart shuddered to a stop and the two let go of each other, shuffling back before one of the Jounin escort looked in on them. There was a sudden bang on the side of the cart, and one of the escort declared in a loud voice that they had arrived.  
  
Quickly wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Temari swung herself off the back end of the cart. Glancing around she noted that they were in a small clearing full of tall, spiky grass. These clearings were usually what divided the deserts from the greener plant-filled environments. Gaara followed her off of the cart and glared at the three Leaf Jounin who had come to meet them.  
  
Temari could feel the open hostility in the air, both sides being ready for expected treachery. After a few moments, however, the Sand-nin backed away, turned and started to leave.  
  
Gaara glared at the Leaf-nin for a few moments longer then turned to Temari. "Goodbye." He stated, before turning to follow the three Sand-nin who had bought them this far.  
  
Closing her eyes, Temari took a deep calming breath before she addressed the Leaf-nin. "Well?" She asked, placing one hand on her hip and glaring at the people from the village she was probably going to be stuck in for the rest of her life. "If I'm going to get engaged, I at least want to do it before I'm an old crone."  
  
One of the Jounin snorted and mumbled something that, although not something Temari had bothered to listen to, was probably insulting. Still, whatever he said it had apparently amused his two comrades, as they smirked slightly after he said it.  
  
Insults aside, the trip from the meeting point to the leaf village went by a lot quicker than Temari had expected, in fact, it was noon on the second day of travel that they came within sight of the gigantic front gates of the village.  
  
With a deep groaning creak, the two log gates swung open to admit the cart, Temari and the Jounin escort.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari stood in the centre of the hall, a long table in front of her. Behind the table were the council of Leaf elders. Much like their Sand village counterparts they were mostly a collection of old ninja and the heads of families who had lived in the village for as long as anyone could remember.  
  
"Ahhhh..." Sighed one of the council members, "So this is they young lass the Sand have sent to prove they will uphold their agreement for peace." Temari shifted uncomfortably under the combined gazes of the elders. Being sized up for her worth as a ninja was one thing, she could handle that, but being sized up for her worth as a female – as a possible wife for someone – now, that was unnerving.  
  
"Yes sir." She replied, just managing to keep a note of steel and resistance in her voice. A faint swishing sound alerted her to the fact that someone had entered the room from behind her. It took a lot of self control not to turn to see who it was, years of expecting attacks from behind trying to make her turn to face whomever it was that could be a possible attacker.  
  
"Ah," Started a second elder, "So good of you to show up Iruka, I understand you had a little difficulty with your class?" The elder chuckled slightly, a dry and mirth-filled chuckle. The new arrival stepped up beside Temari and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes noting that she herself was looking at him the same way.  
  
"Y-yes Elder, young Konohamaru decided to try and lead the children in an open rebellion over lack of candy at lunchtime." Stated Iruka, more than slightly nervous at being in front of some of the most influential members of the village. He was vaguely puzzled why the girl was there though – especially since he didn't recognise her as being from the village.  
  
Temari examined the other man, Iruka, and memorised his features. Since he had not yet acted in anger or disgust at her presence she decided that he either didn't know she was Sand, or he didn't care if she was or not. Either way, he'd make a useful ally against the tide of hatred most of the villagers she'd met so far seemed to be a part of.  
  
"Achem... well, yes, anyway," One of the female elders was waving the others chuckling into silence as she took over control the meeting. "Iruka, we, the village council, have called you here in a matter regarding one of your previous students – one that, perhaps, you know better than anyone else in the village. If Kakashi were here then-"There was another swishing sound as the door opened, causing the elder to cut off her sentence and retreat into a disapproving silence.  
  
"Yo." Temari recognised that voice, it was the voice of that grey-haired Jounin who'd been the teacher of the Uchiha boy. So, if he was here then it probably meant she was going to get engaged to the last member of the Uchiha clan – a smart move for the village, as reviving that clan would have great benefits.  
  
"Kakashi." The female council member whispered In a low voice filled with annoyance. "So good of you to join us."  
  
Kakashi stepped up between Temari and Iruka, completely ignoring the council speaker. In a lazy sort of way he looked Temari over and nodded to himself. "Ah, you're that Sand girl." He noted, "I never expected to see you here again." He added after a moments thought.  
  
"Hatake Kakashi, Will you please pay attention." Demanded the female council member, before being quieted by the head councilman.  
  
"Let them talk, I expect Kakashi knows why she's here, and no doubt she knows why she's here. In fact, all we really need to do is talk to Iruka about it – perhaps we should retire to the back room and discuss it in private." He suggested, nodding over to the back room. Almost all hidden villages had a similar room, one which was protected by various normal and abnormal methods in order to prevent anyone from hearing what went on inside. The other council members nodded in agreement and, after a few moments, stood up and began filing out to the protected room. "Coming Iruka?" Asked the head councilman, motioning for the Chuunin to follow them.  
  
Once they all had left the room, the door shut tight, leaving Kakashi and Temari alone.  
  
"Well..." began the Jounin, "Well, well, well." He smiled and pulled up a chair from the side of the room. "Sit down, you don't have to stand up for me you know."  
  
Temari nodded warily and pulled up a chair of her own, seating herself on the edge, a position better suited to making a quick escape should she need to. Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow at the action but said nothing about it. In fact, he seemed to be counting down to something. "Three... two... one..." He counted, then glanced towards the door to the protected room.  
  
"WHAAAAAAAT!?" Iruka's yell was of such intense volume that the two, Temari and Kakashi, could hear it quite clearly from where they sat. Kakashi nodded to himself a few times and Temari could have sworn he was smirking under that mask of his. After a few moments, however, he sobered up and looked at Temari.  
  
"So, they picked you huh?" he asked, leaning back on his chair. "Stupid move really, since most of the village recognises you, I'll bet everyone you've seen so far hasn't acted very well to you, have they?"  
  
Temari shook her head, not wanting to speak and show any weakness in her voice to this near-legendary ninja. It was only after she'd returned to the Sand village that she'd discovered the grey-haired man was the famous copy- ninja Kakashi himself.  
  
"Pffff, ignore 'em." Started the selfsame copy-ninja, "You were just following the commands of your Kazekage, it's not your fault no-one knew he was a fake. After all, even your villages Jounin were fooled – as was our Hokage."  
  
The ex-Sand-nin remained silent, an act which caused Kakashi to frown in worry. Before he could say anything about it, however, the door to the back room opened, letting Iruka stomp out – annoyance clearly painted across his features. The Chuunin glared at Kakashi for a few second before glaring at Temari.  
  
"... of all the people they could have asked you to go with..." he grumbled, "Why did they have to pick him?" Sighing, the scarred man ducked his head slightly before looking back at Temari – this time without a glare. "Come on," he muttered, "I suppose I should take you to your new..." Iruka all but choked on the next word, "... Fiancée."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The house, Temari decided, was rather clean, oh there were the odd pots of instant food scattered around the kitchen, but it was obvious that they'd only been there a short while – possibly from supper the day before or something. In one room there was a set of scrolls opened and spread out on the floor, but those that weren't opened had been stacked up in one corner – not the best way to store them, but Temari could see that there were no scroll-shelves to properly store them in.  
  
The ninja girl pondered over this information, obviously the owner of this house cared enough about it to keep it tidy, but seemed to ignore or was unaware of many things that would have been more efficient.  
  
Somehow, that didn't sound like the Uchiha boy. In fact, the house had a sort of manic energy to it, as if the cleaner had been hyperactive when he'd cleaned up.  
  
"Oi!" There was a shout of annoyance from near the front of the house, obviously the owner had returned. "What's everyone doing in my hou- Ah! Iruka Sensei!" The voice changed topics quickly, without pause for breath or thought. "Did you come to give me my shopping money?"  
  
'Shopping money?' Temari blinked, if this Iruka was giving the owner of this house money to shop with, than it was likely that Iruka was his father – or at least his guardian. But then why would the copy-ninja be here unless...  
  
It was with a slow certainty that Temari realised that there had been another male ninja in the copy-ninja's group. The same ninja who had shown incredible power and determination in all parts of the Chuunin exam.  
  
"I... have something to tell you." Iruka's voice echoed through the house, "There's someone here you have to meet."  
  
Temari could hear footsteps now, several pairs in fact, with sudden clarity she knew who her new fiancée was.  
  
The door to the room slammed open as a blonde haired boy kicked it open – as if he did it everyday. The boy, upon seeing Temari, froze mid-kick and suddenly jumped backwards, pointing at the ex-Sand-nin.  
  
"What the hell is she doing here!?" He demanded, pointing an accusing finger at the girl, what was her name again? Heck, he was sure he'd heard her name before. 'Well,' he decided, 'It doesn't matter because she's not gonna be here long!  
  
Standing a few heads taller than the leaf villages number one hyperactive Ninja was said Ninja's first teacher, Iruka. The older man sighed, reaching up with one hand to rub at the scar across his nose – a common sign that he was truly concerned and worried about something.  
  
"That," he said, "Is your fiancé."  
  
Chapter 1 – Ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes :  
  
Wheeee. ^.^ My first Naruto ficcie, it was originally going to be some little sappy thing about what happened when Gaara, Temari and Kankuro returned to Sand village but... uh... it sorta grew. Then I re-wrote the first part and made it into this x.x  
  
Anyway, uhm, the next chapter is going ahead – slowly – but it'll get to you eventually. (at time of uploading this, I've hit 3000 words, and I don't even feel that I'm a third of the way done yet x.x )  
  
- lackey H, over and out. 


	2. Hatred

So... uhhh... Last chapter I forgot the disclaimer ^^;; so here it is – now, this disclaimer is for the whole series, not just this chapter =P I think it's kinda ugly to have a disclaimer on every chapter.  
  
I do not own Naruto, that treasure belongs to it's creators and any and all copyright holders of it. Not me =P Though if any original characters turn up they're mine... but for now they'll probably be throw away goons ^^;;  
  
Anyway, on with the fic!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Betrothal  
  
A naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 2 – Hatred.  
  
Uzumaki Naruto was, to put it bluntly, very confused. Opposite him, in the living area of his own home, was one of the three Sand-nin that had been chiefly involved in the attack on the Leaf village during the Chuunin exam.  
  
"What the hell is she doing here!?" He demanded, pointing an accusing finger at the girl, what was her name again? Heck, he was sure he'd heard her name before. 'Well,' he decided, 'It doesn't matter because she's not gonna be here long!  
  
Standing a few heads taller than the leaf villages number one hyperactive Ninja was said Ninja's first teacher – one Iruka. The older man sighed, reaching up with one hand to rub at the scar across his nose – a common sign that he was truly concerned and worried about something.  
  
"That," he said, "Is your fiancée."  
  
There was a long pause in which Temari fidgeted nervously as Naruto stared at her. After a while though, Naruto grabbed a hold of Iruka's shirt and tugged – indicating that he wanted to speak with his ex-teacher in private. Ducking down, Iruka listened as Naruto whispered one question into his ear.  
  
"What's a fiancée?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Iruka was worried. More than worried in fact. He was also quite, quite angry with the village council's decision to have Naruto be the one married to the Sand-nin girl Temari. It wasn't that Naruto was too young, a lot of arranged marriages were performed at his age, mostly those which had political or inter-business considerations.  
  
Nor was it the fact that Temari was at least two, if not three years older than Naruto. Iruka wasn't exactly sure how old the ex-Sand-nin was, as he'd always believed that it was disrespectful to ask a woman her age.  
  
Well, no, actually he'd only believed it to be disrespectful after he'd been slapped silly for asking one crotchety old coot her age. Mostly though, he didn't ask because he was afraid all women would react that way.  
  
Mostly, however, Iruka didn't think that Naruto was really ready for such a... a... a commitment. Being a ninja was a big enough commitment as it was, adding marriage to it would be... well, it wouldn't be a good idea, that was for sure.  
  
Naruto had asked what a fiancée was and, to be honest, Iruka wasn't surprised. Normally a boy's father would one day sit him down and give him 'The Talk' which usually covered such subject. Naruto, however, had never received such a talk, mainly because Iruka had expected the boy to have some breathing space before the subject of girls, marriage and, heaven forbid, sex came up.  
  
Of course, as Naruto's teacher, Iruka would have to correct his earlier oversight and give Naruto 'The Talk'. Good gods that was going to be embarrassing.  
  
'But you're not Naruto's teacher' stated a small part of his mind. 'Kakashi is.' Iruka frowned, he really, really didn't like Kakashi teaching his Naruto. Especially those rare moments when Kakashi felt he had to throw the fact in Iruka's face. As he simmered in remembered anger over this, a dim plan started forming in the back of his brain.  
  
In fact, his thoughts went more or less like this: 1) Naruto's teacher needed to give him 'The Talk'. 2) Iruka was no longer Naruto's teacher, Kakashi was. 3) Which meant Kakashi needed to give Naruto 'The Talk'. 4) Therefore, Iruka could sit back and laugh at the Jounin's embarrassment at having to explain such a subject to Naruto.  
  
Grinning to himself, the Chuunin instructor pulled himself out of the chair in which he had been brooding and set off to find the mysterious copy- ninja.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto stared at Temari, his eyes half closed as he squinted through them. Temari returned the stare just as hard, as if it were some sort of contest.  
  
The two were sat on opposite sides of Naruto's only table, two small bowls of instant Ramen lay empty between them.  
  
"So..." Naruto suddenly said, breaking away from the staring contest. "What are you gonna do?" He asked, leaning back on his chair. Iruka, whilst he hadn't explained what a fiancée was exactly, had told him that Temari would be living here for a while – though he never did say how long she would be here... More importantly, Iruka had told him to treat Temari like a guest or, better yet, like he would treat Sakura. (After all, Iruka did happen to know that Naruto had a crush on Sakura and, hopefully, because of this would treat Temari well if told to act as if she were Sakura)  
  
Temari ducked her head and sighed. Naruto, from what she remembered of him, was immature, hyperactive, noisy and, well, rather stupid. On the other hand, he had beaten Gaara, so there was absolutely no doubt as to his strength and the amount of chakra he possessed. Biting her lower lip slightly she thought about what they could actually do, whatever happened though, she really had to get to know this immature boy better. After all, she wasn't going to marry someone she hardly knew.  
  
As Temari sunk deeper in thought, Naruto was quickly getting more and more bored. Suddenly a thought struck as if it were divine inspiration – or at least indigestion, either way, it was perfect! It was something for him to do and he'd be able to go ask Sakura for advice, after all, she was a girl so she should know how he should act now that he had to live with one. Nodding at his own cleverness Naruto prepared to suggest his idea to Temari.  
  
On the other side of the table, the ex-Sand-nin had decided on a possible course of action, one that would serve a dual purpose. Firstly it would let her explore somewhat, without worrying about accidentally going into a restricted area or something similar and it would allow her to perhaps get to know Naruto a little. "Naruto..." She started, but was promptly cut off when Naruto jumped up and declared his own plan quite loudly.  
  
"Let's go explore!" he half yelled, flashing a roguish grin at Temari, "You only know a little of the village right?" he asked, grinning even wider when she nodded – half in surprise at his sudden outburst, and half in relief that she didn't have to ask him to show her around. "Then I'll show you around! Uzumaki tours, number one in Leaf village!" The hyperactive Ninja posed, like some kind of crazed explorer.  
  
Temari barely suppressed a smirk, instead keeping her features impassive and blank. "I would like that." She said as Naruto deflated somewhat due to a lack of response from his audience. If nothing else, she'd at least be able to gauge how much the villagers disliked her – under the safety of being accompanied by a Leaf-nin, albeit a rather dim one.  
  
She was, however, caught unaware as Naruto grabbed her by the hand and practically dragged her out of the house, slamming the front door shut as they left. Temari noted that he didn't bother to lock it, and decided to ask him about it when they returned. After a few moments of franticly trying not to be pulled off of her feet, she realised Naruto had stopped in front of a Ramen stand.  
  
"This," began Naruto, "Is my favourite Ramen stand in all of the village! Sometimes Iruka-sensei brings me here and buys me some Ramen to eat!" The way the boy declared this in an almost respectful tone of joy made Temari smile slightly.  
  
'So, Naruto seems to like Iruka,' she thought, 'Since he has no parents he must see Iruka as a father figure. Or perhaps it's the other way around and Iruka treats Naruto as his son.' Temari knew about Naruto's lack of parents, mainly because Iruka had told her about it when they had travelled from the council's meeting place to Naruto's house earlier that day.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Iruka sneezed and glanced around. Either he was spontaneously developing hay-fever, or someone was talking about him. Probably Naruto.  
  
He was reasonably close to the small bar where he had heard Kakashi often hung around whenever he wasn't off doing any of his trademark 'mysterious things' or with his ninja team. For a moment Iruka wondered if Kakashi actually owned a house, and if so where, or if he just slept outside or in the trees every day. To be honest, he wouldn't be surprised if Kakashi did do such a thing.  
  
At last he arrived at his destination, a small, relatively nondescript building with only a single little wooden plaque hanging next to it's door declaring that the place was a bar. Stepping inside Iruka found himself in a rather cosy little establishment, along one end of the room was a small drinks bar that was apparently maintained by a thick heavyset man and a comely young woman. Glancing around the Chuunin instructor caught sight of a bush of thick and messy grey hair and sighed in relief.  
  
Kakashi grinned at a joke his drinking partner, Asuma Sarutobi, had just finished telling. The two Jounin instructors were discussing recent events concerning their team – away from the stuffier instructors like Gai or Kurenai. "So..." He murmured, "I assume you heard about the... Agreement?"  
  
"The marriage?" Asuma took a long drag on his cigarette and nodded. "I heard of it – along with several rants from Suzume, you know how she is." The rough-looking Jounin grinned as Kakashi suppressed a mock shudder.  
  
"She's been yelling at me about it, the 'A foreign ninja will corrupt our youth' speech right?" Kakashi asked, blinking his one visible eye when Asuma nodded. The two had both had run-ins with the screechy-voiced academy teacher. She, like many other Chuunin and more than a few Jounin, had views. Mostly of the 'Sand-nin should stay out' sort. "Well, whatever she says, it won't have much effect on the council's decision. Anyway, they already chose who the girl has to marry."  
  
"The Uchiha kid, right?" Asked Asuma, "Seems like a good choice to me, the boy has a good head on his shoulders he'll do fine."  
  
"Except," Spoke a third voice, Kakashi looked up and saw Iruka standing there with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "They didn't choose Sasuke. Kakashi, I'd like a word with you." The Chuunin glanced at Asuma then looked back at Kakashi. "In private, if you could."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"And this is where I knocked Closed-pervert out with my Harem No Jutsu," Naruto was rambling about the things he'd done, the places he liked – and why he liked them. Although he didn't particularly trust the Sand-nin girl, he did have to admit that it was nice having someone to listen to how he felt. Then he blinked and turned to face Temari, scrunching his face up in confusion. "Oi, oi, oi, I'm not boring you am I?" he asked, watching her face as she looked around the clearing. At his question the sand-haired girl blinked and looked at him.  
  
"No, no really," Came the subdued response. In the past hour Temari had been dragged from place to place – listening to Naruto's life story as they went. At several points she had felt for the boy, having no family and the hatred of almost the entire village dumped onto his shoulders. It was, she reflected, quite similar to her own past and almost identical to that of Gaara's. Temari and Kankuro had both been made outcast due to their brother, Gaara, but they hadn't been despised by their entire village instead they were merely 'tolerated'.  
  
A faint crunching sound whispered across the breeze, passing Temari and Naruto by. Temari's ear perked up slightly at the sound, then settled again when she saw a flash of dusky red fur. 'An animal. I'm getting spooked by an animal' She sighed to herself, realising that it would take an awful long time for her to become used to living in a place so teeming with... with... with _life_. Rabbits, foxes, bears, frogs, dogs, insects – all these were absent in the Sand village, and all these were prolific here, with their scratching and gnawing and scampering and...  
  
Temari shuddered slightly. Beyond the odd camel or sand viper, she'd had little contact with animals. She'd seen a tiger once though, a big terrifying thing. And she'd also seen insects... hundreds of the tiny winged, biting, icky things, running up her arms and onto her face and in her mouth as she screamed and screamed and scream-  
  
There was a whistling sound followed by a meaty thunk! A kunai appeared before her, embedded in the thick wood of a tree trunk. The sound had pulled her out of her walking nightmare and set her body into full alert status, every sense stretched out for the faintest signs of an attack and every muscle in her body ready to respond to such.  
  
Beside her Naruto had fallen into a sort of half crouched stance, his hands held out like claws. His eyes roamed the edges of the clearing, his background meaning he was able to notice things Temari wouldn't have normally thought of.  
  
A small rabbit scampered out from behind one of the bushes, heading directly towards Temari. The girl noticed, but dismissed it as a harmless threat. Naruto, on the other hand, had heard of tactics that some of the meaner members of the Leaf village used, because of this he was ready. Diving towards the rabbit he grabbed it with ease and ripped a small white tag off of it's belly, quickly dropping the tag he bounced away moments before it exploded – ripping the ground apart and sending showers of dirt into the air.  
  
'An explosive tag...' Thought Temari, as she hopped back to stay near to Naruto, after all he knew the layout of the land and she didn't. It never does pay to lose one's guide in unfamiliar terrain. 'They used a trained rabbit, and were planning to blow it – and me – up!'  
  
"Poor mister bunny!" Wailed Naruto. Temari glanced around and saw him hugging the rabbit and crying about hurting it when he had ripped the tag off. "I'm sorry mister bunny!" He sniffed, patting the bunny on the head and gently laying it on the ground – whereupon it promptly scampered away to freedom. Wiping his tears away with one sleeve of his bright orange overalls he glared around angrily. "OI! OI! OI! Who's dumb enough to try and blow up the future Hokage!?"  
  
"Who's dumb enough to hang around with the enemy?" Came the taunting reply from somewhere in the bushes nearby, "You that's who – and that makes you a traitor, isn't that right?"  
  
"Daaa... you said it yesyes, you said it goodgood!" Squeaked out a second, rodent-like voice from elsewhere in the bushes. There was a brief rustling and suddenly two ninja were there, having moved at such incredible speed that all Naruto had seen was a brief blur emerging from the greenery.  
  
"We don't like traitors around here, do we Tokurou?" Asked the first, a lanky ninja – Chuunin level if his apparent age was anything to go by – with wild and spiky black hair, though it was painfully obvious that it was dyed, as Naruto could see the blonde roots of it. The Chuunin's eyes were brown and unfriendly, which matched his outfit – a brown jacket covered in pockets with a set of black trousers.  
  
"Naaaa... Traitors are badbad they are they are, nothing goodgood comes from them, should aaaaaaall be killed." The second ninja, also probably a Chuunin, was hunched over – looking to be the same height as Naruto – his face, his whole being reminded the duo of a rat, a large ugly rat. Most of the older ninja's – Tokurou's – face was covered by brown hair that fell all around his head like some kind of natural veil. Like his companion, he too wore the standard issue chuunin outfit, only his was more tattered and torn up. "We should killkill him yesyes, killkill the traitor, then killkill the spy, killkill the spy!"  
  
"Well now," Murmured the other Chuunin, "I can't argue with that plan." He grinned, an evil grin, which wasn't so much a smile as it was a show of smug superiority.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"The Talk?" Kakashi asked the question innocently enough, but Iruka could have sworn that the grey-haired man knew full well that 'The Talk' was and that he was only asking to embarrass Iruka. Iruka scowled as the Jounin smirked. Well, at least Iruka thought he was smirking – it was quite hard to tell with Kakashi, mostly due to his ever present mask which covered the lower half of his face. Still, the eye not covered by his head protector looked like it was closed in a smug way so he probably was smirking.  
  
"You know what I mean! 'The Talk', the one about... things. You know, stuff." Iruka blushed slightly, whilst he knew of the topic it had never really been one he'd followed along with – which explained his current status as a bachelor. "Girls, relationships... Sex. That Talk."  
  
"Oh." Kakashi nodded, "That Talk. I suppose you're asking because of the current situation with Naruto?"  
  
"Of course, the boy knows what a girl is, and given that Jutsu he has, what sex is on the surface, but I don't think he understands the consequences and responsibilities of being... well, married." Iruka sighed to himself and flopped down onto a nearby chair, "I'm worried about him, I guess... I guess you were right about him being ready for the Chuunin exam, but I know I'm right about him not being ready for this."  
  
Kakashi, nodding to himself, sat down next to the worried ninja academy teacher. "You're probably right at that, Naruto is too... well, I guess immature is the word, he's brash and hyper. He's courageous and he'll probably be good to Temari but, I don't think he'd be a good husband to anyone." The grey-haired man paused and thought for a moment, "Not yet at least."  
  
"I think you see what I mean, he's never had any real role model for relationships, other children have their own parents as role models. Naruto... Naruto has only ever had me, and you know I've never had much luck with women." Iruka sighed and stared around the room. "He needs someone to keep an eye on him, and to guide him through the responsibilities such a relationship would entail. Frankly, I'm not qualified for such a thing."  
  
"... And you believe that I am?" Kakashi asked, surprise on his face. "Me? I'm flattered that you'd think of me for this but I-"  
  
"Cut it out Kakashi!" Yelled Iruka, "You know exactly what Naruto is going to have to go though! You've been in his sort of position before!"  
  
Kakashi's smirk fell from his features, his one visible eye going flat and unfriendly. "Iruka... Don't ever try and bring that up again. Even if you are a friend – somewhat – I'd have no problem with hurting you if you do."  
  
"Y-you're right, I'm sorry... It was stupid of me to even think it." Iruka bowed his head in apology, no-one had mentioned the particular event he had referred to in almost eight years, mostly because it was possibly one of the greatest tragedies of the leaf. Barring, of course, the deaths of the four Hokage who had led the village from it's beginnings.  
  
"Mmm... Well... You are right in one thing, Naruto will need someone to help him in this. I'll see what I can do." Kakashi pulled himself out of his seat and nodded at the Chuunin instructor. "I'll see you once I have a plan about this."  
  
"Thankyou." Whispered the scarred man, relief filling him. This situation with Naruto worried him very, very much.  
  
"Eh, don't worry about it." And, with that, Kakashi left the room – the door swinging shut once he had gone.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari took a step backwards, she really didn't want to fight right now, in fact, it was pretty much imperative that she didn't fight. After all, first and foremost, she had been given a direct order not to fight by the Sand village council before she had left. Although she technically wasn't a Sand- nin anymore, she felt that she had to follow the order, that by doing so she clung to some shreds of her Sand heritage.  
  
There was, of course, another reason but any smart ninja could probably tell what it was with ease.  
  
"Oioioi! You don't scare me! You two are like rats!" Naruto yelled, before pointing at Tokurou, "And you even look like one too!" Naruto nodded to himself, his blonde hair swaying as he did so. The young Leaf-nin believed that he looked incredibly cool like that, actually he looked like an idiot but even if people told him Naruto always ignored such accusations.  
  
"Feh, it's better than looking like some foxyfoxy moron." The rat-like chuunin replied, "Those funnyfunny whiskers look reeeeaaally uglyugly, if I were born with them, I'd wear a bag over my head! Hehehe... yesyes..."  
  
Temari blinked, she'd seen the whisker-like marks on Naruto's face quite a few times now, but she'd always assumed that he drew them on himself – or that they were tattoos perhaps. But the way the rat-like ninja had insulted them... Were they natural? And if so, why? She'd never heard of anyone being born with face markings like those before.  
  
The other opponent took advantage of Temari's musings to fling a set of metal balls at her. Almost reflexively she swung her arm up and around to grab her fan and- her hand gripped nothing but empty air. With a faint seed of panic she remembered that she had been told to leave her fan at Naruto's house. Granted, going around with a weapon would have provoked more resentment, but right now she wished she'd brought it anyway. Resentment and anger she could handle, a fight without it she couldn't, not with almost all her Ninjutsu techniques being completely reliant on having a fan or something similar to perform them with.  
  
Quickly revising her plan of action, Temari dived to one side and rolled as she landed – stopping in a half crouched 'fight or flight' ready position. Then something smacked into her side with enough force to make her curse in pain. Glancing at the direction it had come from she saw the metal balls coming towards her once more – rather than being a normal projectile attack as she had expected, the Leaf chuunin must have used some kind of Ninjutsu instead.  
  
Naruto saw Temari get hit and fumed. Granted he may not like her, nor did he trust her much, but Iruka had told him to treat her like Sakura. Now, if there was one thing Naruto wouldn't stand when it came to Sakura, it was Sakura getting hurt. Due to this, Naruto had a rather simple logic for this particular situation.  
  
He had to treat Temari as he would treat Sakura. Temari is getting hurt. If Sakura was getting hurt, he'd protect her. Therefore, he should protect Temari.  
  
Besides, hurting someone for no good reason was just plain wrong!  
  
The remaining metal balls hovered in mid-air for a moment, before suddenly shooting off towards Temari. Temari rolled to one side as several of the balls embedded themselves in the dirt upon which she had just been crouched upon.  
  
"Ha! You like my Shuryou Dairiseki no Jutsu then?" barked out the upright opponent ninja, "Those hunting marbles are freely controlled by my chakra, and I'll use them to hunt you down and slaughter you like the desert dog you are!" Waving his hand he directed the remaining metal marbles at Temari, laughing as he did so. Beside him his companion also laughed, a short chittering laugh that made him seem even more rat-like.  
  
Temari winced, her Taijutsu wasn't that spectacular, and without her fan almost all her Ninjutsu techniques were useless. Also, with the consequences of fighting back hanging over her head, all she could do was dodge and hope.  
  
"ORAAAAA!" The cry was like the scream of a hunting hawk as Naruto slammed bodily into the taller Chuunin, causing him to lose control of his chakra – which in turn caused the metal marbles to fly wildly off target, scattering across the area and ripping up the ground around the area. "Temari!" he yelled, "Why the hell don't you fight back!?"  
  
"Who cares!" Screamed the elder chuunin, as he flung Naruto off of him. Fortunately Naruto landed on his feet and was able to dodge as the rat-like chuunin leapt at him holding two vicious-looking bone coloured knives. "She'll be dead soon enough anyway!"  
  
"yesyes!" Squealed the rat chuunin, Tokurou, as he slashed at Naruto with both knives, his arms moving in a motion that resembled a bite – with the two knives as teeth. "Kill the sand-dog, kill the traitor too yesyes!"  
  
Naruto rolled away, narrowly ducking under the twin blades and coming up in a half-crouch near to Temari. "Why?" he asked, "Why don't you fight!?"  
  
"I... I can't!" Retorted the ex-Sand-nin, "If I fight back then people will have more reason to hate me! B-besides, I'm no good without my fan!"  
  
"Then..." Naruto grinned, it was the sort of grin Temari had seen on a few of her old villages instructors. It was the grin that said 'I have a plan, you don't, prepare to lose'. Naruto's hands flicked rapidly through a series of motions, the hand-symbols that were used to channel chakra, Temari only recognised a few of them since Naruto's hands were moving so rapidly from each one to the next.  
  
"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Naruto's cry echoed around the clearing as, suddenly, the clearing wasn't so clear anymore.  
  
Chapter 2 – ended ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes: Wheee! A cliffhanger! I decided to split this chapter up, as I realised that what I had originally planned for this chapter would take me months to write x.x  
  
Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering a few things, such as 'why was Naruto chosen to be with Temari?' and, 'Why did the Sand send Temari anyway?'  
  
Well, I could be completely anal and say 'because I felt like it', but I won't, there are good reasons. They'll just be explained later on in the story. That's all ^.^  
  
As for the two leaf chuunin x.x well, many people would harbour anger and hatred against Temari simply because she is, or was, part of the Sand village. Many people probably lost loved ones during the attack, and so someone was bound to try and take vengeance on Temari.  
  
I may have scheduled it a little early though... But word spreads fast in a ninja village (unless, of course, there are issues of secrecy at hand) so most of the village probably knows by now that there is a Sand-nin around.  
  
Uhm... to the people who reviewed my last chapter, Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou! ^.^ It made me sit down and whip this part to completion just that little bit faster =P (granted, it was mostly done already but... uhh... yeah. .;; )  
  
Last thing x.x I request help with Technique names, which I want in japanese (thus continuing how I read the scanlated manga, all the techniques were left in japanese) If you see a technique name that doesn't translate right, pop a note including what it should be in yoru review and I'll fix it up. ^.^  
  
Lackey H  
  
TECHNIQUE GLOSSARY –  
  
Shuryou Dairiseki no Jutsu = Hunting Marble Technique 


	3. Distrust

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 3 – Distrust.  
  
"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Temari gasped in surprised as, suddenly, the clearing wasn't so clear anymore.  
  
There were clones of Naruto all over the place, ten, twenty, no, at least thirty in all. Each one of them grinning the same 'you're going to lose' grin that the original Naruto still had plastered across his face. Then, half of the clones bought up their hands and did hand-symbols of their own. Their combined cries, as they pulled off their jutsu was almost deafening.  
  
"Henge no Jutsu!" Small puffs of smoke and dust obscured many of the clones for a moment, finally dissipating to reveal that several of the clones had transformed into perfect copies of Temari.  
  
"Well now," They declared, and Temari was quite amazed to hear how well the transformed clones reproduced her voice, "Did you think we'd make it easy for you?" They stated, before starting to leap and run about hooting and yelling as they did so. The two nasty chuunin turned around in confusion as suddenly they had several targets which looked identical to their original targets.  
  
Temari smirked when she realised what Naruto had done, and was only too eager to follow as the original Naruto grabbed her hand and led the two of them quietly out of the clearing. Behind them they could hear occasional screams of rage and the dull 'fwoom!' sound as Naruto's clones were, one by one, being destroyed.  
  
"This way!" Urged Naruto, as he half-dragged Temari down a small path which led between a thick row of bushes and a rather decrepit building. As he led Temari down numerous small paths and alleyways in their escape, he couldn't help but notice that Temari's hand felt so nice and soft...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Huh... he's not here. How odd." Kakashi murmured as he stepped out of Naruto's home. "Didn't even lock the door, then again, that's not unusual for someone like him."  
  
The grey-haired jounin walked down the street, heading in the general direction of Naruto's favourite Ramen stand. In theory he could have got there in a matter of seconds, but frankly he liked walking. Besides, why waste energy when he didn't have to? There was no particular rush in finding Naruto so he didn't have to use any of his tremendous speed.  
  
"Ah! Kakashi sensei!" Kakashi blinked as he heard his name and turned to face the speaker, a pink haired girl in a read dress-like outfit who was standing in the doorway of one of the houses he had just passed. Odd, he thought Sakura lived almost on the other side of the village, what could she be doing here?  
  
"mmm... I didn't expect to see you around here Sakura." He said, his one visible eye arched in a happy expression. "Perhaps you could help me... have you seen Naruto anywhere?"  
  
Sakura blinked, "No... I haven't seen him since the day before yesterday, is he in trouble?" Whilst Sakura seemed rather polite on the outside, her little inner Sakura was gleefully dancing around singing 'Naruto's in trouble! Naruto's in trouble!'  
  
"Well, I'm sure you'll find out eventually." Replied the copy-ninja, nodding his head and turning to walk off. "It's not like you'll be able to miss it anyway."  
  
"Huh?" Sakura just stood there in the doorway, confusion filling her mind. "What did he meant by that?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari's legs pounded up and down, her feet barely making contact with the ground before lifting up to take the next step forwards. It was an effective, if exhausting, running technique all ninja knew, it defied the law of gravity by using ones own chakra to stay balanced whilst their legs took on the single job of propelling them forwards. Apparently the theory led onto other techniques, such as water-walking, something Temari had never really had the leisure of being able to try.  
  
"Down here!" Naruto suddenly changed direction, pulling Temari to one side and into a doorway. There was no door in the doorway which, really, was quite understandable considering the condition of the building. The place looked like it might fall down any minute. Behind her, Temari could hear the faintest pounding of feet and that annoying chittering laugh that signalled the approach of their two adversaries.  
  
The room the entered into was quite large and obviously wrecked. Holes in the ceilings and walls let in the light, and one whole corner of the room had apparently caved in. It was Temari's first thought that Naruto would lead her through the caved-in section and out through some maze of passageways like he had been doing before.  
  
How wrong she was. Instead, Naruto pushed her into the remains of a storage closet, with hasty instructions to keep as quiet as she could. Fortunately for her, the closet door had a few holes of it's own, and so she could see what transpired in the main room fairly clearly.  
  
The two rather mean leaf-nin rounded the corner and dove into the room, weapons ready... and stopped dead as they took in the sight of one, two, three, no, easily more than six naked blonde haired women. The two of them stared, eyes wide at the sight before them, little knowing that this was Naruto's dreaded 'Harem No Jutsu' at full power.  
  
"Hey boys..." Cooed one of the women, making a beckoning motion with her hand. "Come a little closer..."  
  
The two chuunin, being full blooded – and rather perverted – members of the male sex did just as the woman asked, slowly edging forwards towards where the women were gathered together. Grinning lecherously, the taller one reached out with one hand – only to have it gently slapped away by the lead female.  
  
"Nuh-uh-uh, no touching... not until after we give you our surprise." The girl nodded, then blushed and looked demurely at the two males. "You will let us give you our surprise, won't you?"  
  
"Oh! Yesyes! You can give us any surprise you want!" Chittered the rat-like ninja, eyes gleaming in awe and perversion.  
  
"Ohhh... well then, if you close you're eyes, we'll give you a lovely surprise..." Purred the six girls in unison, each one making a slight movement which made the two chuunin come up with various, and all very perverted, ideas as to what the surprise would be. Grinning stupidly, both of them closed their eyes and waited.  
  
Inside the closet, Temari was practically fuming. Did... Did this boy have ANY idea of how shameless this was? Of how degrading his act was to girls like her? Ugh! He was even more immature than she had first imagined.  
  
So caught up in her annoyance and disgust was she, that Temari almost failed to notice one of the female-Naruto's waving at her and indicating that she should sneak out. As she made her move, the six girls vanished in puffs of smoke and dust to reveal six boys, all with identical evil, shark- like, grins on their faces.  
  
"SURPRISE! One thousand years of pain redux! A lifetime of agony!" They yelled, before delivering their surprise.  
  
It's a known fact that Ninja have incredible pain tolerance, one that went hand in hand with a high physical strength. For the most part this was a result of strict, or just plain excessive, training. Unfortunately, it is very, very hard to raise the pain tolerance of the groin – especially in a male.  
  
This was why, when stuck simultaneously by three kicks from three booted feet by three copies of Naruto each, the two Chuunin felt nothing but pain. In fact, they felt pure agony – as fitting the name of Naruto's impromptu taijutsu technique.  
  
"Y... You..." Squeaked out the taller of the two chuunin, before collapsing forwards, doubled over, his face white with pain. His companion falling to the ground beside him.  
  
"Hehehe, I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I won't be beaten by the likes of you!" Naruto yelled, pointing down at his fallen opponents. "And if you try it again, I'll beat you even worse than this time!" With a victorious grin Naruto stepped out of the building – and right into the path of a particularly vicious slap.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Are you sure you wish to go ahead with this child?" The dusty voice of the old woman in front of her cut through the tense atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. "It is usual to wait until one is eighteen before one goes through with this."  
  
"I... I'm sure grandmother." Her tone was formal, her voice filled with respect. She was, after all, in the home of her grandmother, the oldest living relative she had. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life."  
  
"Why, girl? Why do you wish to go through with the... ceremony? You are competant enough-"The old woman's voice was cut off as the girl jumped to her feet, tears in her eyes.  
  
"I'm not!" She screamed, "Everyone does their best to protect me, the one time I tried to protect them I failed! Sasuke, Naruto and Lee gave their all to protect me!" She bit back a sob and mentally chided herself for her outburst. "I... I'm sorry grandmother, I did not mean to be so, so rude..." The girl sat herself down again, her head held down in a symbol of apology.  
  
The woman opposite her chuckled slightly, "Apologies, my dear, are not needed. You feel you are a burden yes?" She asked, and sighed when the girl nodded in response. "You wish to be able to look them in the eye and say 'I can protect everyone too' is that it?"  
  
The girl nodded dumbly, tears running down her cheeks – only to fall and land upon her dress, spotting the rather expensive material with the salty liquid. "I want to protect them," She replied, "because they protect me."  
  
The old woman nodded and reached out to gently pat the much younger girl on the cheek. "Dry your tears girl," She stated, "It is not fit for a ninja to be seen crying you know." Then she smiled, her face deforming into a collection of wrinkles that looked like a vague 'U' shape. "I have heard you reasons, and I have deemed them to be just. You yearn for the technique so that you may protect those you care for, this is as it should be."  
  
Beside the old woman, a slightly younger woman spoke up, "It will hurt, daughter, the ceremony is painful – like nothing else." Then she paused in thought, "Almost nothing else at least. But the ceremony doesn't have the joy of a child attached to it."  
  
That made both the girl and the old woman smile slightly. The third member of their group always did have a rather twisted sense of humour, but the vague pun did lighten the mood a little.  
  
But only a little.  
  
"... I will go through the ceremony." The young girl stated, lifting her head. "I, Haruno Sakura, will learn our family's special jutsu – even if it kills me."  
  
Ten minutes later she was screaming in pain, unfortunately for her the pain would be lasting for quite, quite some time.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto's head snapped to one side, a bright red hand-shaped mark already appearing where he had just been slapped. In front of him Temari stood, arm out, her hand stinging slightly from making contact with Naruto's face.  
  
"How dare you." She whispered, her eyes flat and glaring at Naruto. "How dare you do something as... as... degrading as that!?"  
  
"Wha?" Naruto blinked and rubbed his cheek with one hand. "Do what? All I did was my Sexy No Jutsu, nothing wrong."  
  
"Nothing... wrong?" Temari's left eye twitched slightly. "Nothing wrong with turning yourself into a naked girl?" The eye twitched slightly more. "Do you have any concept of such things as decency!?" Her voice was slowly raising from it's normal tone to a higher pitched shriek.  
  
The young blonde ninja nodded his head thoughtfully. "Oh." He said at last, "You're upset because I gave those two a free show!" he declared at last, much to Temari's annoyance. "Huh, I don't see how that would make you so angry though."  
  
It was fortunate for the boy that he had at least managed to get half the answer right, it was quite possibly just this fact which prevented Temari from delivering 'a lifetime of agony' unto the boy herself. "That is not," She began, then paused and thought for a moment. "Do you have any idea what 'sex' is?" She asked after a moment. Naruto just looked at her oddly, his face a show of incomprehension.  
  
"Uhmm... No?" He offered at last, causing Temari to sigh in annoyance. It was bad enough that she had to be betrothed to a leaf-nin in the first place, it was worse when it was one at least two years younger than she was. But for her 'husband-to-be' to not even understand such an important topic as the differences between boys and girls was... was... well, it was unforgivable!  
  
"When I find out who should have been responsible for teaching you this..." She muttered, just below Naruto's hearing, "I'll do to them what I was going to do to you."  
  
"What did you say?" Naruto cocked his head to one side as he asked the question, his face looking even younger as it held an expression of childish interest. Temari forced herself to smile and shook her head slightly.  
  
"Nothing," She said, then put one hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Now you and I are going back home, and I'm going to tell you why you shouldn't use that technique ever again." She paused for a moment, then added, "At least, not unless you keep some clothes on her when you transform."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Oh gods, the pain. The pain was almost unbearable. It felt like red hot needles piercing her skin again and again and again.  
  
Mostly, because that happened to be exactly what was going on. For the seventh time that day Sakura regretted making the decision to go through with the Haruno family Jutsu ceremony a few years early. Then images of Lee, beaten up with his sense of balance temporarily destroyed came to the front of her mind.  
  
This was promptly followed by the memory of Sasuke, glowing an ugly color and covered with black curse-markings as he snapped the arms of one of the three Sound-nin that had attacked them in the forest of death.  
  
Finally, an image of Naruto came to mind. An image of Naruto as he allowed himself to be smashed to the ground by Zabuza – just so he could regain his forehead protector from where it lay under Zabuza's foot.  
  
They were all so strong, so incredible, and so protective of her. Of her. They were the ones who let themselves be hurt for her sake, to keep her safe, to make sure she got through without injury.  
  
And then, the one time she had tried to do the same for them – she had failed.  
  
The pain was lessening now, as the ceremony drew to a close and the needle- pains grew dimmer. Her skin still hurt, and her back and arms would probably be one huge scabrous lump for a few days, but after that she'd be able to learn her families single unique jutsu.  
  
Well, it wasn't exactly her families jutsu, in fact the technique was only ever passed down by the women of the family and it was reputed to be almost as old as the village itself. Though, frankly, she thought that last part was a bit of an exaggeration.  
  
"There," Stated the voice of her grandmother, "All done." Dimly, Sakura realised that the pain was gone now, and that she could feel the cool pure sensation that was the healing ointment being applied to her back.  
  
In a few days...  
  
In just a few days she'd have a technique with which she could protect the people she cared for.  
  
But before that, she still had to make the signing. Though, at least that would be easier, and much less painful, than the first part of the ceremony.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"So, you mean every time I've done that..." Naruto's face was a mixture of shock and horror, with not a small amount of disgust thrown in for good measure. "I've been inviting them to... EWWWWWW!" His face scrunched up in a look of abject disgust as, finally, the actual consequences behind his Sexy No Jutsu came to light for the first time.  
  
He had always known that when a guy looked at a naked, or at least semi- naked, girl that it was a perverted and wrong thing to do. Before now, however, he hadn't actually known why this was so. Of course, thanks to Temari's rather patient explanation he understood. The two of them were sat opposite each other at the table in Naruto's small kitchen area. The same table they had been sitting at before they had set off to explore that day in fact.  
  
"I take it you understand now?" She asked, smirking slightly. In educating Naruto she'd had a good chance to discover who was probably the most at fault for his cluelessness concerning the opposite sex. Mentally she had made a note that Iruka deserved one nice, solid, kick to the groin. Or to the head, depending on which would be easier to kick when she got the chance.  
  
Still... there was one tiny little thing she wanted to ask, some small little detail she'd noticed when Naruto had used his Sexy no Jutsu.  
  
"Naruto," She started, "How did you slap that guy's hand away?" It was a strange question to ask, one with a seemingly simple answer. The meaning behind the question, however, was much, much more important than it first seemed. The blond ninja looked confused for a moment, before scratching at his chin.  
  
"I just did." He answered, nodding his head. "It's nothing special." His eyes were closed in that smug expression some people get when they're sure that they know what they're talking about.  
  
"You're wrong," Temari stated, poking Naruto in the chest to emphasise her point. "The Henge No Jutsu is just an illusion, you shouldn't have been able to touch them without 'her' hand passing through them. After all, 'her' arms are longer than yours."  
  
Naruto blinked a few times, then cocked his head to one side. "Huh?" He grunted, summing up his entire understanding of the subject. This made Temari want to scream and shout and tear her hair out, didn't this boy know anything!?  
  
"You," She started, her teeth grinding together as she spoke. Not that Naruto actually noticed this of course. "You can't transform into someone of a vastly different body shape and expect to be able to touch someone. The Henge no Jutsu doesn't mean you actually turn into someone else, just that you place an illusion of looking like someone else over your body."  
  
"So... if you were to transform into someone twice your height, the top half wouldn't be real?" Naruto asked, a little inner light-bulb having clicked into the 'on' position and illuminated a mental diagram of the problem.  
  
"That's right!" Temari smiled at Naruto, she was quite pleased that he'd grasped the concept so quickly. Given what she knew of him she had expected to stay talking for the rest of the afternoon trying to explain it at least.  
  
"But... I don't think it's different from the normal one, I mean, the hand seals are the same..." Naruto murmured, obviously confused. "Though..." He added, "I don't move my chakra like I used to, would that do it?"  
  
'Aha,' thought Temari, 'so now we start to see how he does this...' Then she sighed and hung her head. 'This is almost an exchange of Jutsu. I, I've really begun to think that I'm never going to get out of this, haven't I?'  
  
She said none of this however, instead she just stayed silent. Her mind had travelled back to her memories of her home, of her parents, of Kankuro – heck, even Gaara. It was late now, almost the end of her first complete day in the village where everyone hated her.  
  
Well, almost everyone.  
  
Naruto seemed a bit distrusting, but he was obviously being open and honest with her, a trait that only he seemed to have apparently. From the look of it, he'd also mostly forgiven her for what had happened in the attack just those few short days ago.  
  
Iruka, too, seemed displeased with her presence. Then again, he seemed more angry at the fact that it was Naruto she was being betrothed to, rather than at her for who she was.  
  
And Kakashi who... well, she had no idea how Kakashi felt but he had acted kindly enough during those few moments they had talked whilst waiting for the leaf council to make their declaration.  
  
"Temari?" Naruto's voice was quiet, caring, as if he actually worried about her. "Temari? Did you fall asleep or something? I know I used to fall asleep a lot when it got this late, are you tired? Shouldn't you go to bed?"  
  
Temari smirked, "Who could ever sleep with you yelling in their ear so loudly." She responded, sitting up and wiping damp eyes on the edge of her sleeve. "... Naruto... I," Naruto cocked his head as Temari's voice faltered slightly. "I want to thank you, for helping me, when I couldn't fight back."  
  
The fox-like young ninja smiled, his eyes half closed as he grinned a grin that stretched from one ear to the other. "Don't worry about it!" he proclaimed, "It's wrong to pick on people who can't fight back! Even if they are-"He cut off, not wanting to finish the sentence, knowing that it wasn't something he should have said.  
  
"Are? Are what?" Asked Temari, one eyebrow raised in a questioning glance. "Are the 'enemy'? Are a 'desert dog?" She snorted as her evaluation of Naruto fell by several notches. Standing up she glared at the boy. "I'm going to bed." She declared, "If you follow me... I'll kill you. No matter if you're my fiance or not."  
  
With that the ex-sand-nin stomped angrily out of the kitchen, down the hallway and up a set of stairs to the room she had been allocated. Obviously she was taking great care to make as many loud, stomping noises as possible. Naruto winced when he heard Temari slam the door to her room, it had enough force to knock one of his scrolls from where he had stacked it.  
  
Mentally the boy was kicking himself, he'd really done it that time. Even if he had cut off the sentence, he had still thought what he meant and, now that he looked at it again, he realised just how bad it had seemed.  
  
"... I'm sorry." He whispered, picking up the scroll and placing it back on the stack. Then something occurred to him. "Hey... If she's sleeping up there then... Where the hell am I supposed sleep!?"  
  
"QUIET!" Came the answering yell from upstairs. Naruto just sighed and slumped over slightly. It looked like he was just going to have to sleep on the floor tonight.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Up in the, rather clean, room Temari was busy pulling things out of her packs in search of her night-clothes. So far she'd found pretty much everything else she owned, but not them.  
  
'Did I pack them?' she though, 'or did Kankuro?' She smouldered as she pulled another set of desert clothing from the box it had been kept in. 'If he did I'll kill him!' Her hand reached inside the box once more and gripped something else to pull out.  
  
Odd... It was wrapped up. She didn't remember putting anything wrapped into her boxes, and she didn't remember Kankuro doing so either. Dropping what she held in her other hand, Temari reached in and pulled out the paper- wrapped object. Carefully she unfolded a corner of the wrapping and gasped in shock when she saw the rich blue material underneath.  
  
"This..." She whispered, "This was mothers wedding kimono..." Tears filled her eyes as she remembered her mother. Not that she had many memories – she had died whilst giving birth to Gaara after all. But still, the few memories she did have were just... they were... well. There was no real way to describe them, because Temari had never heard any words which could fit the feelings of happiness she had back then. As she hugged the package to her chest, she peeked inside the box and saw that there was a tiny little letter, with her name on the envelope.  
  
Plucking it from the box, she opened the letter and read it in silence, a silence that was occasionally punctuated by a soft sob as Temari realised just how homesick she felt.  
  
'Temari. No, 'Sister' is probably a better way to start this.' Temari smiled, the handwriting was definitely Kankuro's, there was no way she could mistake his chicken-scratch like script. 'by now you've been in the leaf village for a day or two and, if I know you, you're probably already missing your room.'  
  
It was true, she did miss her room, the one that was filled with painted fans of all kinds, as well as with more than one poster of the latest musical group in the country. She hadn't been able to take the fans, because they didn't actually belong to her but instead to her father, who owned the house.  
  
'Well, Gaara suggest that maybe we should give you something to remember us by. Well, when I say suggested I mean he said "make sure she does not forget", which I guess is the closest he can come to that sentiment.' He was right too, whilst Gaara was learning about such things as 'asking' and 'being civil' he still had great difficulty expressing his feelings.  
  
'If you're reading this, then you already found mother's wedding kimono. You'd be surprised to know that Baki-sensei was the one who acquired it for us, saying that our mother would have wanted you to be married wearing it.' Baki-sensei? Temari would have never expected him to pull of something like this. Then again, he had been their instructor for several years, so maybe he cared for her as a student?  
  
'One more thing, myself and Gaara, well... We copied some of the family scrolls and stashed the copies in your packs. After all, we don't want you to be out there unprotected – we all know how bad you are without your fan.' Making a mental note to check the rest of her packs later, Temari scanned through the remainder of the letter. Most of it was the usual, 'we hope you do okay' and the like, nothing else was particularly interesting. Finally, she reached the end of the letter.  
  
'We hope that... that you'll find some way of telling us that you're okay there. – Remember, we care for you. (even if Gaara doesn't show it much). From: Your younger brothers.'  
  
Tears fell from the girls eyes, as she hugged the letter to her chest. Somehow she doubted that she would be able to find a way to contact them back but... But for now, this was enough.  
  
Not long after Temari was asleep on her bed, the letter still clutched tightly to her chest.  
  
All in all, it hadn't exactly been a bad first day.  
  
Not good, but not bad either.  
  
Who knew what the next day would be like?  
  
Chapter 3 – ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes –  
  
Whee. Chapter 3 ended. That about sums it up really ^^;; These first three chapters have been difficult for me, as a barely legible writer usually I have no idea where I've found the skill to pull these off.  
  
Currently I'm discussing with a friend over getting a nice ad-free site, if and when I do I'll probably reproduce these up on it. Also, I'll be glad to put up any artwork people want to do once I have the space for it =P  
  
So, I'm a bit worried that this chapter is worse than the previous two x.x because I've taken a few more liberties than I did previously. Hopefully, though, these liberties will blossom into something that'll keep you amused and interested for as long as you read the fic ^_^  
  
Thanks to all the people who've reviewed this x.x you wouldn't believe how much I needed the ego stroking ^^;; I'm almost as bad as Hinata sometimes where my courage is concerned.  
  
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the fic, and I also hope that you don't have to wait too long for the next chapter ^^;;  
  
Oh yeah... for reference, at present the fic takes place after the attack on Leaf village, but prior to Naruto leaving with Jiraiya. I'm considering writing through and around that arc – namely in what happens whilst Naruto is away ^.^ Since I have some plot points which would fill that space nicely. (of course, if the manga takes a sudden U-turn that plan will be altered x.x)  
  
One more thing, the 'mr. Bunny' bit, is a reference to how Naruto reacts after he almost hits a bunny rabbit just prior to Zabuza's appearance in the wave country arc. ^.^  
  
- lackey H, wondering what yellow smells like. 


	4. Thunderstorms

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 4 - Thunderstorms.  
  
Morning. Morning had come. And with it had been bought a whole new world of pain to her body as she sat up in bed, the golden light of early morning streaming in from the spaces where her curtains didn't quite cover the window properly.  
  
"Ugh..." Haruno Sakura started to stretch, then immediately regretted it when her back and arms decided to burn in agony. "Ooooaaawww..." She moaned, ceasing all attempts to move and instead lying limply in bed. She could feel the stinging sensation of the most crucial part of her new technique lying just under the wall of pain.  
  
Well, actually it was more than one technique really, but at the same time it was just one technique. She knew it was something that neither Naruto, nor anyone else could copy. Heck, Sasuke and Kakashi wouldn't even be able to copy it - not even with their Sharingan!  
  
Unless, of course, they went through the same ceremony she did. That, however, was something that would never happen because the only people who knew how to perform the ceremony were her mother and grandmother.  
  
"Sakura?" The withered voice of her grandmother filtered through the door, "May I come in grand-daughter?"  
  
"Y-yes..." Sakura winced, it was hard to keep the pain out of her voice. Then again, her grandmother was probably skilled enough to be able to detect even the faintest traces of pain - so it wouldn't really have mattered anyway.  
  
There was a slow, rattling sigh from the other side of the door. With a smooth sliding sound of well oiled hinges the door to her room opened, admitting the shrunken and shrivelled form of the head of the Haruno family.  
  
"I wish you had not made the choice to go through with the ceremony child, I worry that it may have been to hard for-" Sakura's voice cut her off, surprising the old matriarch.  
  
"No. It... It was something I had to do." Sakura's voice was strong and filled with steel. "I can't be protected forever."  
  
The wrinkled old woman smiled at Sakura's announcement. Whilst she was slightly annoyed at being interrupted in such a rude manner, she did believe that such disrespect was most likely caused by the pain from the previous day's ceremony.  
  
"I am glad that you feel this way child... no, not a child any longer, for by going through the ceremony you have agreed to become an adult - albeit a rather young one." Sakura grinned slightly and tried to sit up, she didn't get far instead wincing in pain and slumping back down onto her bed. Her grandmother watched the effort and sighed once more. "Roll over ch- I mean, grand-daughter, I have some ointment that should reduce the pain."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The sun that awoke Sakura was the same sun that also woke the displaced Sand-nin, Temari. Her eyes were heavy, and veiled with fog as she slowly sat up in bed. If there was one thing she hated as a ninja, it was having to wake up at sunrise.  
  
"Wh'r'm'I?" She slurred as she sat blinking the sleep away from her eyes. The room was unfamiliar, it wasn't her room at all. Slowly she began to remember the previous days events and, as she did so, she slumped over. "Oh." She murmured, "Leaf village, yes, I remember now."  
  
She glanced around the room, taking note of the clothes still in their boxes, her fan leaning against the wall alongside her fan repairing equipment. Swinging around to sit on the edge of her bed, Temari hooked a foot around one of the boxes and dragged it into reach. She smiled a moment before pulling out one of the outfits it contained. It was similar, in many ways, to her normal outfit except this one was a dirty pink colour and had a longer jacket - one that reached past her knees.  
  
Folding the outfit over one arm, she grabbed a towel from near the bed and wrapped it around herself. Now, all she had to do was find the bathroom. Preferably without letting Naruto know that she was going around his house almost naked. Striding over to the door to what was now her room, the blonde haired girl put her ear to the door.  
  
Nothing. It was silent, which hopefully meant that Naruto was still asleep. Sliding open the door as quietly as she could, Temari peeked down the small hallway. Satisfied that Naruto wasn't awake - or at least wasn't around - she slipped out of her room and creeped down the short hallway at the top of the stairs.  
  
As she went along, she nudged each door she passed open, checking the contents in her search for a bathroom. In hindsight, she should really have explored the house the day before - but that just hadn't occurred to her then.  
  
The first door she opened led to an empty room with various dummies tied to the walls or hanging from the ceiling. She smirked as she realised that most of the dummies were dressed up to look like various people she had seen in the Chuunin exam. There was Kakashi, and the bug-guy, and the Hyuuga boy and in one corner, there was one that faintly resembled Gaara next to one that looked like the boy, what was his name? The one Gaara had been injured by in the preliminaries.  
  
It looked like Naruto used this room for training, or something similar at least. It seemed good enough, given the limited resources the boy must have.  
  
Temari nodded as she slid the door closed and moved onto the next one. The next door was almost opposite the one she had opened, and was the room on the opposite side of the stairs from hers. This room, really, was nothing special, just a lot of junk crammed in around an old bed. Once it had probably been a second bedroom - or a guest room. Now it appeared that Naruto used it to keep all the stuff he couldn't fit in anywhere else.  
  
'Heh... So that's why this place looked so tidy' Temari thought, 'He probably got told to clean up and just dumped everything in here.' She smirked slightly as she shut the door to that room and moved onto the next. Upon opening it she could see that she had found the subject of her search.  
  
It was a rather nice bathroom actually, it had everything one needed and had been decorated in a rather nice blue and green colour scheme. Granted there was the occasional missing tile on the walls, and the paint was starting to flake away in places - but that was to be expected given that Naruto probably had absolutely no idea of how to fix any of the minor problems.  
  
Temari paused at the entrance to the bathroom and glanced around the hallway. There was, she noted, one door she hadn't tried yet. It was the door situated at the very end of the hallway, next to the bathroom in fact.  
  
She tried to fight the urge, but in the end her curiosity won out and she slipped over to the last door.  
  
"I wonder..." She whispered, and opened the door.  
  
Or, at least, she tried to open it. Evidently the door was locked tight, though for what reason she knew not. This was something she would have to ask Naruto about but, for now, the bathroom - and the promise of a nice warm bath - beckoned her away.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Mmm... Gonna have Raaaamen..." Murmured Naruto, still lost within sleep. "An' some ribs an' some... some..." his eyes snapped open as the faint sounds of running water reached his ears. "Hwah?"  
  
Now, it must be noted that Naruto isn't exactly a morning person. In fact he bounces between two standard modes of awakening. Namely the 'I'm a hyper chipmunk' and the 'huh? Wha? Wake me up in 'nother five minutes' mode. Now, whilst these two awakening methods are quite standard, Naruto manages to pull them both off with a certain brilliance.  
  
Namely, Naruto's brain doesn't actually start working until up to an hour after waking up. Before then the boy relies entirely on pure instinct.  
  
Right now, Naruto's instinct was telling him that there was an intruder in the house. Judging by the sounds that reached his ears, the intruder was upstairs. Had his brain been working properly, Naruto's common sense would have been sending out dire warnings of what would happen should he go up there and seek out this 'intruder'. Not that it would have had much effect, as Naruto ignored his common sense all the time anyway.  
  
Skulking and sneaking towards the stairs, the blonde-haired ninja paused. There was something he was forgetting... Something important.  
  
Oh well, no matter. He'd remember soon enough, until then whatever it was couldn't possibly be a problem. Grinning at his instinctual logic, the foxy youth slipped up the staircase with not even a single sound of creaking steps, nor the beat of footsteps to give him away. His ears twitched slightly as he heard a splashing sound, along with a faint humming.  
  
Since his common sense had decided that there was nothing it could do to save Naruto's hide, it whiled away the time by paying more attention to the hummed tune than the rest of Naruto did. It was a rather nice tune actually, one from a relatively common song about rain and clouds and freedom and all the other things which usually got put into songs just to make them seem complete.  
  
Naruto's hand rested on the handle to the bathroom door, with a quiet tug he checked it and found it locked. This fact alone should have sent warning bells through Naruto. Unfortunately most of his mind had decided that Naruto deserved a good beating, if for no other reason than the fact that he had ignored all the previous warning signs.  
  
A gently lifting motion unhooked the, rather badly fitted, latch. Naruto had always ignored the fact that it could be forced open so easily - after all, who would want to force open a bathroom door?  
  
Other than himself of course.  
  
He slid back the door slightly and peered into the room. Not that he could see anything, since the place was filled with steam and mist - heck, he couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face in that indoor-fogbank! The humming was louder no, off to his left and... wait. Hang on.  
  
Several bells had gone off in Naruto's mind, which was just beginning to pull out of it's early morning post-sleep haze.  
  
Wasn't he sharing the house with someone now?  
  
And wasn't that someone a gir- oh. Oh my.  
  
Temari had just stepped out of the bath, the mist in the room clearing just enough for Naruto to get something Jiraiya would kill for, the mother of all peep-shows.  
  
Unfortunately, the mist had also cleared enough for Temari to see him too. The older girl froze, half in shock at being seen, half in anger at being seen. Her hand reached out, grabbed a towel and pulled it about her before the mist cleared enough for Naruto to see anymore of her body.  
  
"Na..." She began, her voice a growl of rage.  
  
"Ru..." The boy suddenly had a mental image of himself, at the foot of the stairs, dead from being beaten to a pulp by a fan-wielding maniac. The image was not a very nice one.  
  
"TO!!! I'll kill you!" Temari's scream of anger filled the house, spilled out onto the street and was even heard by those at the local bath-house. Just outside the bath-house one perverted, white-haired man blinked and looked up from the peep-hole he had been peering though.  
  
"Ah..." He murmured, "So the boy is more like me than I first thought."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Urgle..." Naruto groaned as he rested his head on a desk. His face was a collection of bumps, bruises and more than a few red handprints that signifies particularly powerful slaps. Beside him was Uchiha Sasuke, who looked particularly amused by his companions pain.  
  
Well, at least it was possible that he was amused. It could have been anger, or irritation, or indigestion for all anyone could tell. Sasuke really wasn't one to show his emotions particularly well.  
  
The two were sitting in a small classroom, awaiting the arrival of both Sakura and Kakashi. The two boys were both slightly worried over the fact that Sakura was late, Kakashi's time-keeping, however, they really couldn't care less about. Kakashi is, was, and always would be late to pretty much everything he didn't consider super-urgent, which was pretty much everything really.  
  
Naruto perked up slightly as the classroom door opened, lifting his head form the table and peering at whoever it was that had opened the door. Sasuke, on the other hand, just glanced at the door out of the corner of his eyes.  
  
"Urgle..." Sakura stumbled in through the door, her arms covered in bandages and, judging by the way her dress seemed slightly odd, her chest and abdomen were wrapped in the things too. The pink-haired girl staggered in and literally dumped herself down next to Naruto and lay her head upon the table.  
  
Naruto put his head back on the table and looked at Sakura. "Sakura-chan?" he asked after a moment. "You look like hell." He stated, nodding slightly.  
  
Sakura merely nodded. "Naruto?" She asked, pushing herself into a slightly more comfortable position. "So do you."  
  
Sasuke snorted slightly, then turned to the other two members of his team. "So," He began, "Why are you two so beat up?"  
  
"Training." Was Sakura's answer, "Painful training." Inside her mind, however, Inner Sakura was doing a mad little dance. 'he cares enough to ask about our well-being!' she squealed, though outside Sakura didn't give any indication that this was going on inside her head.  
  
Sasuke grunted. Training was an acceptable reason for being bandaged up like that. On the other hand, if she had said that she'd been attacked, Sasuke would have gone to deliver the wrath of the gods unto her attacker.  
  
Not because he liked her or anything, it was just that it was wrong to leave an injured team-mate un-avenged. Hell, he'd have done the same for Naruto...  
  
Maybe, anyway.  
  
If he didn't have anything better to do at least.  
  
"So. Naruto. What happened to you?" he asked at last, keeping his expression blank. The foxy-ninja turned his head to face Sasuke and glared.  
  
"Ran into a door." He muttered, his face flushing red as he remembered the real reason for his injuries. He'd got quite an eyeful before Temari noticed he was there - and had then beat him senseless for being a pervert. "Several times. Then I fell down the stairs."  
  
One of Sasuke's eyebrows lifted as the dark-haired boy smirked. "Really?" he could tell Naruto was lying, and that instead of running into a door the boy had been beaten up by a girl - the slap marks were evidence enough of that. As to which girl, and why, he had no idea.  
  
The three young ninja all glanced towards the door as it slid open with a slight scraping sound.  
  
"Yo." Kakashi smirked under his mask, holding up one hand in greeting as he strode into the room - then he paused, blinked and looked hard at Sakura and Naruto. "What happened to you two?" he asked at last, causing the duo to groan in annoyance and pain.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari was fuming. Really, really fuming. That PERVERT Naruto had just walked in on HER in the BATHROOM and worse yet, he seemed like he had actually done it on PURPOSE!  
  
The ex-san-nin's fist lashed out and smashed into one of the training dummies Naruto had in his training room. This particular one she had dressed in a dirty and torn orange outfit - to resemble the current object of her anger.  
  
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid pervert!" She screamed, each yell being punctuated by the sound of her fist slamming into the dummy. Though her blows weren't as co-ordinated or as well performed as the attacks of someone like, say, Rock Lee, they were filled with her current rage.  
  
Temari wasn't all that good at unarmed Taijutsu. Well, she was, she could easily take out any non-ninja without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, anyone with sufficient unarmed combat could beat her - and this included pretty much any other ninja.  
  
Now, when she had her fan however, the scales tipped in her favour. As far as she knew, she was one of the only three sand-nin who had ever wished to learn the unusual fan-based fighting style. Even then, she hadn't been quite as good as her peers - but she had the advantage of being related to Gaara. That was, quite possibly, the only reason she had been picked to enter the chuunin exam - to keep Gaara under control.  
  
And she'd failed.  
  
So they sent her here, used her as the sacrificial pawn in a giant game of politics and intrigue. After all, she hadn't been sent here because she was skilled, or because she had any good jutsus to give to the leaf village... no. She'd been sent here because she had been expendable.  
  
An inter-village marriage really had very little to do with the two people getting married really. The real point behind it was that the village in the weaker position was sending someone and, effectively, saying 'This person has knowledge of some of our jutsu and chakra types, we'll give them to you via him or her if you agree, aid or forgive us'  
  
A faint sound of distant thunder echoed in Temari's ears as she fell to her knees, slowly believing herself to be as useless and expendable as her village had believed her to be when they had sent her here.  
  
A single tear crept down her face and splashed upon the dusty floor. As she cried the weather outside began to echo her feelings as rain began to fall down upon Leaf village.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The rain also fell down upon the building in which team seven were currently situated, casting a dull gloom over the classroom. Staring outside ate the rain, Kakashi sighed in slight irritation. Fortunately there were no plans for any missions today, or else they would have been in a right mess - what with Sakura obviously in almost constant pain and Naruto, evidently, beaten senseless.  
  
"Well," He murmured, "Since we have nothing better to do I may as well..." Smiling to himself the copy-ninja looked at his students and smiled wider.  
  
Or, at least, his mask was in a certain pattern of stretches and creases which his team had, eventually, learnt to recognise as a smile. The creases moved over the fabric of the mask as Kakashi's mouth moved up and down with his voice, many times the three young ninja had tried to remove the mask, however, they had failed each and every time.  
  
"Since you're in no shape to train - well, except for Sasuke - I have an important announcement for you all." He nodded, smirking slightly as Naruto pushed himself into a sitting position. This, thought the grey-haired man, would be amusing. "Teams even, eight and ten will be changed slightly - from three-man teams, to four-man teams. This is mostly in response to..." He paused, there was no easy way to say this as all the instructors and students had been deeply affected by the source of this problem. "... in response to the removal of Rock Lee from ninja service."  
  
Both Sakura and Naruto winced slightly, each of them remembering in perfect detail the look on Lee's face when the news had been broken to him. Sakura, especially, was upset by the statement - as she had also seen how Lee had tried to continue, even after being told he would never be able to be a ninja due to his injuries.  
  
Kakashi waited for Naruto and Sakura to calm themselves a little before continuing. "The remainder of team nine is to be split up, with Tenten joining team eight and Neji joining team ten. We, your instructors, agreed that this was the best way to push forwards with the chuunin-level training you will all now be going through until you decide on the path you wish to take."  
  
The path, quite simply, referred to the fact that some ninja would branch away from standard duties and take up more specialised roles - such as medical-nin, teacher or even something as rare as shrine-nin which, basically, were ninja highly skilled in sealing-type jutsus. Although the most common path for a chuunin to take was the one that eventually led up to the point of becoming a jounin - unless, of course, the chuunin died before they got that far...  
  
Hesitantly, her face twisting at the pain, Sakura raised her hand and spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei? If both members of team nine are joining other teams then... who'll be joining ours?"  
  
Kakashi could have laughed, it was so amusing to watch Naruto's battered face pass through expressions of agreement, confusion, thought, realisation and then shock before finally reaching a look that was usually seen on stunned bunnies - shortly before they became dinner for a larger animal. "You'll meet them soon enough." Stated Kakashi, his one visible eye in a little arch of amusement. "Just as soon as we walk to, and reach, Naruto's house."  
  
Naruto's face changed from the stunned bunny look to one of pure horror. Not that Sakura and Sasuke noticed, they were both too busy trying to think of who could possibly be at Naruto's house.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari sniffed and wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve. Ninja, especially sand-nin, were not supposed to cry.  
  
"But..." She whispered, "I'm not of the Sand anymore, am I?" That point bought forth a new wave of tears which she just barely managed to hold off. Reaching up she patted the bare space at her neck, the space in which - until a few days ago - a head-protector marked with an hourglass had sat.  
  
Pulling herself to her feet, Temari walked over to the window - her feet scraping trails on the dusty floor. The window was, like most windows, merely a hole in the wall which could be covered with shutters - in this particular instance the shutters were made of wood, though glass shutters were not quite common on some of the more important buildings.  
  
There was only one shutter on this window, possibly because the other was damaged and, to be honest, Naruto probably couldn't afford to have it repaired or replaced. Not that it mattered, there was enough of an overhang above the window to prevent the rain coming in - unless the wind was blowing the right way of course.  
  
Temari stared out at the dark clouds above and listened as a boom of thunder and a bolt of lightning split the heavens. She fancied that she could see the gods of the sky, beating their drums to make thunder, and stamping their feet upon the tops of the clouds to force the lightning through the bottoms.  
  
Yes... Baki had told her that little myth, that thunder and lightning were just the gods of the sky having a party. Apparently, when he had been younger Temari's mother had told him the tale herself.  
  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
  
A young Temari huddled under her bed as thunder filled the air and rain, a rarity in the desert, came smashing down to cause flash-floods in many places just outside the village. The room suddenly lit up with a ghostly glow as a bolt of lightning speared down from the heavens - illuminating everything, including herself.  
  
"Temari?" Baki had been younger then too, a young adult in his early twenties, the man picked to look after Temari and Kankuro - the duty of looking after Gaara fell to the brother of his mother, Yashamaru. It was a little known fact that Gaara was, in fact, only half-brother to Temari and Kankuro - their real mother having died on a mission not long after Kankuro had his first birthday. Gaara's mother had just been a tool, used by the Kazekage to create the demon-child of the Sand. Either way, the Kazekage hardly cared about his children anymore - all he seemed to care about nowadays was the decline of the Sand village and the advice of his latest advisor, Oro-something.  
  
"B-Baki-san?" Temari's voice was frail and trembling, hardly surprising since the girl was only about four-and-a-half years old, only a year and a half until she started at the ninja academy. "I-is that y-you?" She asked, fearful of what the response might be - her young mind already filled with the mental pictures of the horrible monsters that made the loud booming she heard and the bright light she saw, along with all the water falling from the sky.  
  
This was, after all, the first time she'd ever experienced rain - whilst she was old enough to know what was going on at least.  
  
"Yes Temari," Baki's voice was soft and kind - a far cry from the much harsher and colder voice he would have almost twelve years from now. "It's me."  
  
Baki stepped into the room, and almost instantly found himself almost tripping over a terrified Temari, who had glomped onto his leg at the first chance she got. The little blonde-haired girl wailed in fear as another booming crash rattled the window shutter - followed quickly by another ghostly illumination as lightning filled the sky.  
  
"Ohhhh..." Baki nodded to himself in understanding, "Scared of the storm are we?" He asked, looking down to see Temari look up at him, confusion on her face.  
  
"Staw-em?" She asked, her childish voice mangling the word and causing Baki to smile slightly at her attempt.  
  
"That's right," He whispered, sitting down on a chair and letting Temari clamber up into his lap. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to have a family of his own, then he'd just shrug and ignore the matter. After all, as far as he was concerned Temari and Kankuro were his children - at least, he was the only one who looked after them. "And that noise is thunder, and the light is called lightning."  
  
Temari blinked. "Dunder and Wighting?" She hazarded, causing Baki to smile at her little mispronunciations. "What're they?" Came the question Baki had expected, just as another peal of thunder caused Temari to cling to his chest and try to hide herself.  
  
He grinned slightly and patted Temari on the head. For a moment he wondered why it was always Temari who was the bother, Kankuro hardly complained about anything - instead he spent his time messing around with little wooden soldiers and slightly battered puppet-like toys.  
  
"Thunder and Lightning..." he began, "Are the sounds of the clouds having fun."  
  
That answer obviously confused Temari, as she glanced out of the partially open window at the large black blobs hanging in the sky. "Cwouds have fun?" She whispered, half to herself and half to Baki.  
  
"Yes," Replied the older man, as he picked her up and carried her to the window. "Up there," He said, pointing, "The gods of the sky bang their drums and party, That's what makes the thunder - the sounds of their drums. And when lightning comes down, it means that the dancing sky-gods are stomping the floor and having fun."  
  
"Oooooohhhh..." Temari stared up at the sky in awe and Baki was pleased to see that she hardly winced when the next booming wave of thunder swept over them both. "The sky-god bang-ed his drum!" Squealed Temari, her eyes filled with wonder.  
  
"That he did Temari, That he did." Baki looked up at the sky, an almost dreamy expression on his face. "That's why your mother always said that thunderstorms are happy, because when there's thunder there's a party."  
  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
  
Temari stared out the window of Naruto's training room. Cautiously she reached out with her palm facing up, to catch some of the raindrops on her palm.  
  
"I may not be part of the Sand anymore, and maybe most of the people in this village hate me... but..." She closed her eyes and smiled slightly, "Naruto was nice to me, even if he is a sneaking little pervert."  
  
The blonde-haired girl pulled her hand back, reached up and gently tugged at the bands which kept her four ponytails in order. With their support gone, her hair fell downwards, leaving it as a golden wave that reached to the base of her neck.  
  
Taking a deep breath she looked out the window and stared up at the clouds.  
  
"Temari of the Sand... is, for now, no more." She stated, "Soon I may be Temari of the Sand again, or I may instead become Temari of the Leaf." Closing her eyes Temari flung the hair-bands out of the window, letting the flimsy things be carried away in the wind and pounded down by the rain.  
  
"Either way, I promise that the next time you clouds are feeling this way, I'll be feeling the same... after all..." She smiled slightly and raised her voice, shouting her promise to the clouds above.  
  
"I want to be happy like the thunderstorms are too!"  
  
Chapter 4 - Ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes:  
  
Ack x.x I apologise for the lateness of this chapter ^.^;; but things seem to have conspired to stop me from getting it done x.x first I lost my original copy and had to re-write it all, then one of my kitties died ;.; and I just couldn't write anything for a while.  
  
But here it is now! In a slightly larger than normal chapter that is full of some scenes that should make it worth the wait ^-^ I hope o.o;;  
  
A big thankyou to aaaall those who review my ficcie, and another big thankyou to those people who pre-read =P  
  
Well, I noticed that someone commented on my theory that henge no jutsu can't touch something... now, I'll say this only once. I didn't make a mistake ^.~ you only heard half the theory - the other half will be explained when it seems appropriate.  
  
Until the next chapter, let the Thunderstorms be happy ^.~  
  
I can't help but think that the last scene was more inspired by One Piece than Naruto x.x Since it's a ver OP-ish thing for someone to do ^^;;; Either way, I like it.  
  
Now remember peoples - nothing was ever said about Temari + Kankuro's parents and I thought it strange that (as Yashamaru said to Gaara) that Gaara's mother hated and cursed the sand. Which bought up the question of 'if she hated the sand, did she really have two prior children there?' it seemed kinda doubtful, so I wrote in my theory on it.  
  
Oh yeah, one more thing... Anyone got any suggestions as to Temari + Kankuro's family name? As the family names of the three sand-nin are never mentioned . if they even have family names that is o.O;; Yeah, anyway, slap your thoughts on that up if you review this chapter ^.^  
  
Lackey H, Thinking of Temari in the rain.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Special bonus!!  
  
List of musics which I reckon should be background tunes for the various scenes in the first three chapters. (or at least, they were the tunes I listened to when I wrote those scenes ^.^; ) Most of these tunes come from the Naruto OST x.x which I was listening to almost religiously after I first got my hands on it ^^;;  
  
Chapter 1 --  
  
Scene 1 - Inside the Sand council-hall: Evening (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 2 - Sand village Bathouse: Evening (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 3 - Packing in Temari's room: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 4 - Leaving Sand village: Loneliness (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 5 - Talk with Gaara: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 6 - Leaf council-hall: Frogs Hidden Past (Chrono trigger soundtrack)  
  
Scene 8 - Naruto's appearance: I Said I'm Naruto (Naruto OST)  
  
Chapter 2 --  
  
Scene 1 - What's a fiancee? : I said I'm naruto (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 2 - Iruka plans to drop Kakashi in it: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 3 - Lets go exploring! : Naruto's daily life (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 4 - Asuma discusses with Kakashi: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 5 - Poor mr. Bunny!: Nervous (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 6 - Iruka drops Kakashi in it redux: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 7 - The fight: Bad Situation (Naruto OST) and The Raising Fighting Spirit (Naruto OST)  
  
Chapter 3 --  
  
Scene 1 - Run away! : Go Go Naruto! (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 2 - Kakashi's search: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 3 - Lifetime of agony: Go Go Naruto! (naruto OST), Sexiness (Naruto OST), Turn Over (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 4 - Are you sure child?: Nervous (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 5 - SLAP!: Morning (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 6 - The pain...: Nervous (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 7 - dinner table discussion: Morning (Naruto OST)  
  
Scene 8 - Letter from family: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST) 


	5. Tears

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 5 - Tears.  
  
Temari stared up at the clouds as her yell echoed around the leaf village until, finally, it was drowned out by a booming roll of thunder. Smiling, the blonde-haired girl turned and stepped away from the window, her hair a little damp from where she had leant outside.  
  
As she left the 'training room' she glanced along the corridor just as a lightning flash illuminated the area through the glass-covered skylight above. At the very end of the hallway was a single door, unremarkable in every way save for the fact that it was, quite possibly, the only door in the whole house that was locked.  
  
Why? What would be the point of having this one door locked?  
  
Unless... of course, there was something he didn't want her to see. No, that would be ridiculous, Naruto didn't seem to be hiding anything from her at all...  
  
Temari frowned slightly. Everyone hid something, right? So why should this boy be any different? In fact, if he wasn't hiding anything, that would be much more unusual than if he were to be hiding some secret from her.  
  
Taking a deep breath, and quashing her natural paranoia - a paranoia that had been deeply ingrained into her through years of ninja training - Temari crept over to the locked door. Ducking down, she first tried peering through the keyhole - only to find it so full of muck and grime that it was impossible to see through.  
  
Of course, all that muck also meant that the door had not been locked recently, as she had first thought, but had instead been shut this way for quite some time.  
  
How... intriguing.  
  
Before she could act further, a knocking sound from downstairs tore her attention away from the closed door. Quickly she darted into her room and retrieved her fan before heading downstairs - after all, she didn't want to get caught unarmed like what had happened yesterday when she and Naruto had been attacked by some less than happy leaf-chuunin.  
  
As she approached the front door to the house she heard the sounds of keys in the lock. In some ways this was reassuring since, according to Naruto, only he and Iruka had keys to the building. On the other hand... She had beaten up Naruto quite a bit that morning and it would have been quite, quite easy for any anti-sand activists to knock him out - or worse - and take those keys.  
  
Any further thoughts were halted as the lock clicked once and the door began to swing open...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hyuuga Hinata hurried along, darting from one overhang to another in a vague attempt to stay dry - or at least stay dryer than she would have been otherwise.  
  
In her arms she clutched a card box which steamed slightly. The front of the box was marked with the gaudy logo of Hizashi's Ramen House, one of the few ramen stands that offered take-away meals. She'd quite happily been on an errand to fetch a meal for the rest of her team whilst they trained under Kurenai Yuuhi - their Jounin instructor.  
  
Within the box were six sealed bowls of Ramen, one for Kiba, Shino, Yuuhi, Herself and the new addition to their team, Tenten.  
  
The sixth bowl had been bought on an impulse and she had been hoping to deliver it to Naruto.  
  
Naruto.  
  
She blushed as she thought of him, his blonde hair, his determined eyes, his manic personality and... his strength. The same strength he had given her when she had stood up to Neji in the chuunin exam preliminaries.  
  
It was, really, quite a big secret that Hinata had a crush on Naruto. Although, it must be said, there were a few people who were perceptive enough to notice her feelings towards the foxy-ninja. Kurenai-sensei and Shino probably knew, they were the sort who didn't really let much slip past them. Kiba... well, Kiba probably wouldn't notice even if she declared her feelings out loud - that was just how he was. Hinata also had the slight suspicion that Sakura, from Naruto's team seven, also knew but that, really, was just a guess.  
  
The reason for the secrecy concerning her feelings was, in fact, a rather big and dangerous one.  
  
Namely, her father.  
  
The current head of the Hyuuga family was a traditionalist. And by traditionalist it was meant that the man hadn't had an original thought since he'd been born. All he lived upon was the simple fact that, in his eyes and the eyes of his parents, the Hyuuga family were the best.  
  
And the best did not sully themselves with things the commoners did. Even Hinata, who had been rather unceremoniously, kicked from her position of heir to the family, wasn't exempt from her fathers views on such subjects.  
  
It was, frankly, the reason why members of the Hyuuga clan didn't train in any jutsu other than the three basics - Henge, Bunshin and Kawarimi - and the activation of their own Byakugan ability.  
  
Now, if these were his views on 'common' ninja, his views on marriage were even more traditional. He viewed marriage as merely a political thing, to be planned by parents for the benefit and good of the family. Truth was, if her father had his way, Hinata was destined to be married off to some fool who's only redeeming feature was that an original thought had never sullied his mind.  
  
Marriage to Naruto was... Well, if her father got his way it would never happen. Never. Not in a million years.  
  
Given that village law was technically on Hinata's side, she had a slight advantage over her father. If she got married to someone - on her own initiative - then he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it.  
  
The problem was, Hinata didn't know exactly how far her father would be willing to go to preserve the family's 'honour'.  
  
In short, She was afraid that her father might kill Naruto if he found out. Heck, why would he stop there? For all she knew, he could kill everyone she felt attraction to - just to make sure he could control her marriage. He'd probably get away with it too, the Hyuuga family were too old and too powerful to really be stopped so easily, and it would be too easy for them to stage an 'accident' instead of a murder.  
  
After all, Hyuuga were the strongest in the leaf.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The door swung open and Naruto, and a pink-haired girl, staggered through it, each of them leaning on one another - and looking like they'd fall down if they tried to stand up individually. Temari blinked, the girl had been on Naruto's team hadn't she? Now what was her name?  
  
It was then that Sasuke stepped through the door. For a brief moment Temari marvelled at how handsome he was - then she remembered how much of a jerk he'd seemed during the few times he'd shown himself in the chuunin exam. Still, she did think she would have preferred to be engaged to a handsome jerk who seemed to at least understand such basic thins a privacy and decency.  
  
"Sakura! Naruto! Get DOWN!" Temari had only the briefest moment to gasp in surprise as Sasuke yelled out his warning, smacked his hand down on Naruto's head and vaulted over the orange-clad ninja. The Uchiha boy's feet barely touched the ground before he launched into a powerful side thrust kick at Temari's abdomen - while his preference would have been to perform a roundhouse to the head, the hallway was much too narrow for such a manoeuvre.  
  
Temari moved quicker than she had ever moved before as she pulled her, still closed, fan up and braced herself - holding the closed fan at an angle like a really thick staff. Even so she only barely managed to block Sasuke's kick, the force of which drove her backwards - her arms protesting at the strain of stopping such a blow.  
  
The black-clad, black-haired ninja lost no time in following up his kick by spinning slightly so that his body face the door he had just come through, then pushing up and off of Temari's fan and into a backward flip that would result in a devastating kick to the back of Temari's head as he somersaulted over her head.  
  
The, now terrified, sand-nin turned her head and her body, trying to bring her fan into a position to block with. Too slow! Too slow! She couldn't make it in time! She couldn't-  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The rain fell.  
  
Not very poetic, but then he wasn't a particularly poetic man. He could have said 'the rain fell to earth like hundreds upon thousands of tiny tears' but he didn't, that just wasn't his style.  
  
The rain fell, and that was that. Why bother with poetry?  
  
"Oi." His companion nudged him in the shoulder with one foot. Bah, why did he have to get given this crappy mission? He would have much rather been at home reading or sleeping or maybe playing a nice game of-  
  
"I said... OI!" His companion kicked him, quite hard, in the leg. "Are you even listening to me!?" She shrieked, sounding like some annoying... thing. That was really annoying.  
  
Simile wasn't really his style either.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. I'm listening." He said, waving his hand. Gods but this was annoying.  
  
"Really," His companion didn't seem particularly amused at his flippant attitude. Then she looked away, back at the building the duo were spying on. "Our target is definitely inside," She stated, "I saw them near one of the windows earlier."  
  
"So, what're we gonna do?" Asked the lazy man. "Just keep watch until we have a good window of opportunity and then BAM! Right?" The man smacked his hands together in an effort to emphasise his question. The girl, his companion, just laughed.  
  
"Close, though not quite. But yes, we've just got to wait for the right opportunity..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari's eyes widened as Sasuke's foot came hurtling towards her head with enough force to crush it like an unripe watermelon. Her body felt as though it was made of lead as she desperately tried to pull her fan up and around to block the kick...  
  
The kick...  
  
The kick that stopped dead just as the tip of Sasuke's foot touched her skin.  
  
Temari gulped, her face a mixture of fear, shock and awe, she had only just managed to get her half-way around - there was no possible way she would have been able to block such a kick herself.  
  
As the giant fan fell from shock numbed fingers, Temari's gaze moved up ever so slowly in an attempt at working out what the hell had just save her life.  
  
"Sasuke," Stated Kakashi, "If this is how you expect to treat your new team- member then I am not impressed."  
  
The copy ninja stood there, between the door and Temari, both arms outstretched and his hands gripping Sasuke's shins, preventing the younger ninja from completing his awesome kick. Sometimes it was amazing just how incredible a jounin was, in this case alone Kakashi had reacted with inhuman speed, managed to get past the bodies of Sakura and Naruto - who were both laying on the floor after Sasuke's vaulting move had knocked them down - and finally grabbed hold of Sasuke's shins. Not only that, but he had enough physical strength to have completely halted the boy's momentum.  
  
All this, and no-one had even seen him move, nor felt his presence until he had actually stopped Sasuke's blow.  
  
Temari backed away from Sasuke's feet slightly, bumping into Kakashi's legs as she did so. By this point, Sakura and Naruto had pulled themselves to their feet - whilst Sakura was annoyed at having been knocked down - Naruto was just plan mad.  
  
"Sasuke you bastard!" he yelled, with his characteristic lack of subtlety, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" The blonde-haired boy shook one fist in the air as he yelled at Sasuke, "You could have hurt Temari!"  
  
Three sets of eye blinked in shock at Naruto's final yell.  
  
'Why the hell is he concerned about some sand-nin spy?' Thought Sasuke, as Kakashi let go of his shins, allowing him to drop to the floor and land on his feet.  
  
'Is he defending a Sand-nin? Wait... I'd heard that there was an arranged inter-village marriage... Could... Could Naruto be...?' Sakura's line of thought trailed off as she glanced from Naruto to Temari then back to Naruto. 'No way...'  
  
'What did he just say!?' Unlike the other two, Temari's thoughts were much more jumbled and confused. Possibly as a result of her last-moment rescue from Sasuke's attack. 'Did he just try to defend me? Again? But why would he want to defend me? Especially after what I did to him this morning!'  
  
Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Sakura, Sasuke, meet your new team-member, Temari Sabakuno, also known as Naruto's Fiancée."  
  
So caught up in the situation were they, that they never noticed one single figure who now ran away from Naruto's home...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hinata had gone towards Naruto's home, drawn by the sounds of Naruto yelling.  
  
Granted, she'd been on her way there anyway but she had originally planned to go there after giving the rest of her team their bowls of Ramen. She hadn't intended to stop, she didn't plan on approaching the door of Naruto's home.  
  
She never meant to hear Kakashi's statement.  
  
"- Also known as Naruto's Fiancée."  
  
"- Known as Naruto's Fiancée."  
  
"- Naruto's Fiancée."  
  
Naruto's. Fiancée.  
  
The words filled her mind as she backed away from the door, her head shaking from side to side in disbelief.  
  
"No..." Hinata's voice was but a whisper, a whisper that was drowned under the sounds of the rainfall. She turned away from the house and started to run, her tears mixing with the raindrops as they fell.  
  
Hinata had always, ever since she had first seen him, believed in Naruto. She had believed in his strength, his determination and... and in his smile. The smile that he always seemed to wear, even when he was upset or afraid. It was the smile that said 'look at me, see how I smile even though it hurts?'. That smile was the one she adored for the longest time and then... And then one day she knew.  
  
She knew that even though Naruto wore that smile he was crying within, that unseen tears rolled down his cheeks even as he bared his teeth in a happy grin.  
  
She knew, because she did it too.  
  
Hide her emotions behind a blank face - perhaps not quite the same as Naruto but she was still hiding her emotions just like he did. The one emotion she hid the most was the great attraction she felt towards the boy who never gave up, the attraction that made her strive to be like him - to keep going in the face of adversity. Soon attraction became something more, and Hinata had found herself wanting to be with the boy, to hold him and hug him and tell him everything was alright as she let him shed the tears he kept hidden from the world.  
  
In sort, Hyuuga Hinata loved Uzumaki Naruto.  
  
But she had never been able to build up the courage to tell him that she had these feelings for him, that she had wanted to be with him for such a long time!  
  
And now, it was too late.  
  
Naruto had a fiancée.  
  
And it wasn't her.  
  
It wasn't fair.  
  
Just unfair.  
  
Why her?  
  
Why?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Fiancée? Then the inter-village marriage rumour is... true?" Sakura was sitting up, the pain under her bandages apparently forgotten for the moment, with wide eyes she stared at Naruto and Temari - who both had the decency to look somewhat embarrassed under her scrutiny.  
  
"I don't get it." Mumbled Sasuke, "Why would they pick you for something as important as this?"  
  
"Isn't it obvious?" Asked Temari, her voice low and her head hanging down. "It's because we're considered expendable by our villages."  
  
"Huh?" Three voices, Naruto's, Sakura's and Sasuke's, all betrayed the confusion each of them experienced after hearing such a statement. Kakashi, however, just nodded.  
  
"She's right." He murmured, "There have been many instances of inter- village marriage being used to sneak an assassin into an enemy village - usually to kill their 'betrothed' and create chaos." At that statement, Naruto scooted away from where Temari sat and eyed her with suspicion.  
  
"Likewise," Kakashi continued, "There have been instances of the receiving village making an example of the lone 'enemy' by publicly executing them." Sakura gasped at that, and Naruto looked somewhat guilty as he scooted back to his original position next to Temari.  
  
"That's awful!" Exclaimed Sakura, one hand covering her mouth in order to hide her shocked expression.  
  
"I see..." Mumbled Sasuke, "From the point of view that most of our village has, Naruto is still the same screw-up he was way back in the academy - strictly speaking there would be no great loss if he died."  
  
Both Naruto and Sakura stared at Sasuke, eyes wide and mouths hanging open - neither of them able to believe that Sasuke had just said something like that.  
  
"Oi! Oi! Oi!" Naruto recovered first and jumped up, pointing one finger at Sasuke. "You can't say that! I'm the best ninja in the village!"  
  
Sakura sighed and glanced at Temari. "You're certainly the loudest ninja in the village." She whispered, and winked conspiratorially when Temari stifled a giggle with one hand - thankfully unseen by Naruto.  
  
Sasuke then turned on Temari. "And you're slow." He said, "You barely blocked my first kick, and if not for Kakashi-sensei you would have never stopped my second. From what I heard of your fight with Shikamaru, you displayed only the use of one technique - meaning that you probably don't know any others."  
  
Temari hung her head and looked down at the table as Sasuke spoke. He was right too, amongst the sand she was the weakest - her only redeeming point had been that she had some small influence over Gaara.  
  
Now she didn't even have that.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Woof!" The tiny dog barked from it's perch atop the head of it's owner. Glancing upwards slightly, in a much practised manner which meant that the dog did not fall off, and blinked.  
  
"You hear something Akamaru?" He asked, looking through thick black hair at the small yellow-furred dog above him.  
  
"..." Stated Shino, his silence somehow conveying a meaning even though he didn't actually say anything at all.  
  
The three, two boys and one dog, were sitting in a little shelter happily keeping themselves dry. For some reason Hinata hadn't turned up with their food, a tiny fact which worried them both greatly as Hinata was usually the most punctual member of the group. Their instructor, Kurenai Yuuhi, had decided that Hinata's absence was just too worrying - especially in a thunderstorm like this one.  
  
With this in mind she had sent the two boys - and one dog - off to find their shy companion. So far the only thing the two boys had discovered was that Shino's bugs wouldn't go out in the rain and that Akamaru's sense of smell was practically useless in the horrible weather. They had decided, quite damp, that the best thing to do would be to take a rest and plan how to search the area more effectively.  
  
"WOOF!" Akamaru barked, louder this time, and made a vague motion that was his way of indicating a direction. Facing the direction Akamaru had indicated, Shino peered into the misty wetness that was the unstopping rain. After a while a lightning bolt arced in the clouds overhead, lighting up his vision and allowing him to barely make out a figure huddled down in the distance.  
  
"Hey." He murmured, loud enough for Kiba to hear. The young member of the Inuzuka clan nodded to Shino in agreement.  
  
"Yeah, I see it. Think it's her?" He asked, "Akamaru thinks it is, Don't ya?" He added, reaching up to pet his canine friend.  
  
"..." Stated Shino which, as Kiba translated, was a sort of agreement. "Let's go." He stated suddenly, and stalked off into the rain.  
  
Kiba blinked, then glanced around. "H-hey!" He yelled, "Who the hell put you in charge." He grumbled, glaring at Shino's back as he followed the bug- using Aburame heir.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Calm down, Calm down." Kakashi waved his hands in a calming motion as he spoke. "Arguing will get you no-where, Temari will be joining our team regardless of what you all think anyway."  
  
"Why should we put up with her?" Grumbled Sasuke, still somewhat put out about the whole situation. To him it seemed like a bad idea, a very bad idea.  
  
Kakashi turned on Sasuke, still smiling, and spoke in a sugary sweet voice. "You have to put up with her for one reason and one reason alone." Then he glared. The three members of team seven caught the glare and suddenly went wide eyed. Sakura and Naruto wisely scooted out of the way slightly, Naruto pulling Temari along with them.  
  
The times when Kakashi got annoyed were few and far between, fortunately. Though it was hard to tell if he was really annoyed, or if he was merely faking irritation, it was well known amongst the three that whenever Kakashi lost his smile and happy expression, he was being serious.  
  
"You will put up with her," began the copy-ninja, "Simply because I say so." He nodded to himself, his irritation flickering away into a rather neutral lecturing expression. "In life, and in missions, it will be rare for you to chose who accompanies you. Though, for the most part, you will stay in the same teams you were in as Genin it is not always viable for you to attempt a mission with those people."  
  
Sakura nodded to herself, "Is that because you may need the skills of people who specialise in certain things?" she asked, "Like when you sent Pakkun and Shikamaru with myself and Naruto when we had to chase down Sasuke-kun?"  
  
There were a few grunts of thought before Naruto also spoke up. "Oh yeah, 'cuz Pakkun had a strong sense of smell and Shikamaru knew how to ambush the ninja that followed us."  
  
The Jounin instructor grinned at them both. "That's right. In these instances the team selection will be made by either the team leader, or by whoever gives you the mission you have to perform." He stared at Sasuke, "you based your views of Temari on past experiences and combat data alone, both of these mean very little in real life. After all, combat is only part of being a ninja and, of course, there is no guarantee that you have seen everything that someone can do."  
  
"So." Grumbled Sasuke, "What can she do?"  
  
Temari gulped slightly. "Well," She began, "I'm an expert in survival techniques, and I've studied various poisons and poison cures. My unarmed Taijutsu is... weak, but I'm much better when fighting from a distance with my fan." She looked around guiltily and sighed.  
  
"I... I also have some scrolls with technique I haven't learnt yet which... which I guess I'll have to learn."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Are you sure that's Hinata?" yelled Kiba, as thunder practically drowned out his voice. Shino merely glanced back and nodded once. "Well," Grumbled Kiba, "I'm glad someone does, I can't see a damn thing in this weather!" Atop his head Akamaru whined, disliking the feel of his fur being soaked through.  
  
Shino said nothing as he approached the figure, who could now be seen to be sitting on the wet ground with her knees pulled up against her chest. Now that he was close enough, Shino was definitely sure that this was Hinata. He didn't know this from her outfit, or from her face - which was slightly blue-tinged from being out in the freezing rain for so long, nor did he know it was her because of her hairstyle.  
  
No.  
  
He knew who it was because of one simple little detail.  
  
After all, only Hinata would sit in a rainstorm just to hide her tears from the world...  
  
Chapter 5 - ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes:  
  
And lo, do I secure my place as the number one target (dead or alive) for Hinata fans everywhere.  
  
Go me.  
  
Not much to say except writers block decided to smack me around the face at around 2500 words. Not fun.  
  
Is Sasuke a bastard? No, just a bit anti-people. ^^;;  
  
Still searching for webspace. Nuuu. Though, if anyone creates some art to go with this, and puts it up somewhere, I'll be happy to include the addy at the end of the next chapter. ^__^  
  
And for all those who poke at my continuity... It is there. Just wait for it to get clearer ^^;; Also, just because some things that should have shown up (Kakashi's talk w/ Naruto - as some people e-mailed me about) haven't yet, they will do eventually.  
  
Hell, they may be different from what you expected too.  
  
ACK! One more thing. I've never seen Temari's family name anywhere o.O So when I asked, and someone told me 'Sabakuno' I though, 'well, I like the sound of it so. what the hell.'  
  
If it's proved otherwise, I'll change that detail. Until then though, it's Temari Sabakuno. ^.^  
  
Lackey H, Wishing for Tenten in Autumn.  
  
PS: For those of you that read my other fic 'To be Strong' do NOT think I've given up on it x.x I'm just suffering some major block on that ficcie ^^;; It'll continue once I get past that block, count on it. 


	6. Day

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 6 - Day.  
  
Shino knelt down in front of Hinata and placed one hand on her shoulder. "Hinata?" His voice was quiet, barely heard above the rain and the sounds of Kiba's feet splashing through the puddles on the ground as he approached them at a run. "Why do you cry?" At the question Hinata looked up. Shino almost backed away in shock and fear when he saw the hopeless depression within those two pale white orbs that were Hinata's gift - or rather curse, at least as she saw it anyway.  
  
Tears and rainwater swirled together, mixed and ran down her cheeks in a flood as Hinata shook her head slightly, trying to find out if this was - no, hoping this was a nightmare. "N-Naruto-kun..." She whispered, too low for Shino to hear over the rain, but her lips moved just enough for him to read them, albeit with some difficulty. "Why Naruto-kun?" murmured the Hyuuga girl, "I-it's n-not fair..."  
  
Shino had heard, or at least lip-read, enough. As Kiba arrived and stood next to him, Shino pulled himself upwards and whispered into the Inuzuka boy's ear. Kiba frowned slightly. "Did she say what happened?" He asked, his voice a hoarse murmur that only Shino could hear. "Or at least what Naruto did?" Shino shook his head in the negative, then looked sadly at Hinata.  
  
It was no secret that the boys were somewhat fond of Hinata. Sure, she was a screw-up in the missions, and she often broke into tears or cowered away when someone berated her but still...  
  
She was Hyuuga Hinata.  
  
She was just Hinata.  
  
Their friend.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari dug through the various boxes that still held quite a selection of her belongings. Every so often she would pull a rather nondescript scroll out, open it slightly to check it's contents, then place it into one of three piles beside her.  
  
Naruto, his natural curiosity having dragged him into the room, stared at the three piles with interest. The first pile contained four scrolls, somewhat thicker than the other scrolls, but otherwise there wasn't much difference between the scrolls in that pile and those in the other piles. "So..." He began, slightly unsure of what to say. "Are these...?" The question was left hanging, unfinished, in the air.  
  
"Technique scrolls, yes." Temari's voice was much more clipped and imperious than it had been for the past few days - a sure sign that she was beginning to get over her fate a little. "The pile on the left is Taijutsu, the one on the right is Genjutsu - the rest are plain Ninjutsu."  
  
"Oh..." Naruto picked one of the Taijutsu scrolls up and opened it slightly, peeking at the - rather bad handwriting - that described the technique. "So, you're going to train yourself in some of these? Which ones?"  
  
Temari paused and glanced at Naruto before shrugging. "I don't know yet, my only real special Taijutsu technique isn't all that good, and my Kamitaichi technique is better suited for defence - like when I used it to blow away all of that girls weapons in the preliminaries. If I make it big enough to cause serious damage to people it drains a lot of my Chakra."  
  
Naruto nodded in thought. "How about this one?" he asked, holding up the scroll he had been peeking at. "It's a Taijutsu attack, a distance one I think."  
  
Peering at the scroll, Temari nodded to herself. "Looks good, I've tried that one before - but I could never get enough spin on my fan for it to work properly. Then again, I'm better now than I was when I last tried it."  
  
At that moment, the door to the room swished open to reveal the jounin Kakashi. "Yo." He stated, "You said you had some questions?" he asked, looking at Temari. The blonde-haired girl nodded a few times as the jounin instructor stepped into the room and sat down, making sure not to step or sit on any of the scrolls on the floor.  
  
"Kakashi... sensei..." Temari bit her lip, it felt so strange to call this man her sensei. In a way it felt like she was somehow betraying Baki, her instructor from when she had lived in the Hidden Sand village. "Do you... Do you know what Henge technique Naruto uses?"  
  
Kakashi's one visible eyebrow raised slightly. "Didn't he tell you?" he asked, glancing at Naruto - who just looked around in confusion.  
  
"He said he uses the normal Henge, but that can't be right can it? I've seen him turn into a solid body." Temari looked at Naruto. "I know a normal Henge only gives the illusion of transformation, but Naruto really does transform."  
  
"Really now?" Kakashi looked faintly puzzled and stared at Naruto. "You say he doesn't know how he does it?" at Temari's nod he frowned slightly. "There is a technique which does that, it's related to the Kage Bunshin no jutsu but... Well, I didn't know Naruto was unaware that he was using a high-level transformation technique. I thought he'd just learnt it from the same scroll he learnt the Kage Bunshin from."  
  
Naruto frowned in deep thought. "There was Henge style jutsu in that scroll, it was the second technique... I tried it but I wasn't able to do it so I gave up." He looked at Kakashi with a questioning expression. "I thought I'd only managed to learn one technique..."  
  
"Well," Murmured the jounin, "That explains it... Back then Naruto slacked off so much he probably didn't even know the limitations of the normal Henge no jutsu. It that were true then he probably didn't even realise he'd performed the higher-level version of the technique. I mean, I've never paid all that much attention to him when he transformed, since I know both levels of the Henge technique already."  
  
"Ah... I see." Stated Naruto, even though it was completely obvious that he did not.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Asked Kiba, "It's not like you to think up something like this Shino..."  
  
"You don't agree?" Asked the Aburame boy, most of his face hidden by the collar of his jacket. "I would have expected you'd love this plan."  
  
"Well, yeah, I do..." Conceded Kiba, "But you were the one who suggested it, you're normally the most level headed of the team."  
  
"And?" Asked Shino as the two, carrying Hinata between them, arrived at the classroom building. "You saw how bad Hinata was. He deserves it."  
  
Kiba nodded in agreement. "Yeah. He does. C'mon, lets put Hinata in the classroom and let Yuuhi see to her while we go get dried off." The Inuzuka boy grumbled slightly, "Wet dog fur smells after a while you know."  
  
"And then," Began Shino, but was cut off by Kiba.  
  
"nonono," He muttered, glancing around quickly, "We don't want to risk anyone hearing about this and trying to stop us. Believe me, I know, people always try and stop these sorts of plans if they hear them."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It had been decided, quite hastily, that all four of the young ninja would sleep at Naruto's home that night.  
  
'To promote team spirit, and let you get to know your new team member better.' Kakashi had claimed, though the four privately thought he had decided this just to annoy them all rather than any sense of 'team spirit'.  
  
They were probably right too.  
  
Either way, it meant that Naruto and Sasuke were left sleeping downstairs, whilst Sakura and Temari were sleeping in what was now Temari's room.  
  
Sakura eyed the ex-Sand-nin warily. Granted she was technically no longer a Hidden Sand ninja - heck, by all rights she currently wasn't a ninja at all, not until she was recognised by the village as being a Leaf ninja at least. Of course, returning to the sand and being re-recognised as a ninja there would work too.  
  
'No, I'm just being a bit paranoid.' Thought the pink-haired girl, 'She wouldn't be able to beat me now anyway, not with my secret technique...' Sakura winced slightly as she thought about the technique she'd paid for in pain. Right now she could feel her back, along with most of her arms, throbbing slightly with a dull ache - the cool atmosphere had probably dulled the pain slightly. Still, it was useable - just about - though she hadn't really practised in it's use, all she'd done was learn the theory from her mother and grandmother.  
  
Still, it was nice to feel the reassuring warmth of her chakra as she guided it to gently flow around the many swirls and seals that had been tattooed onto her back.  
  
"-ra? That is your name, isn't it?" Sakura blinked at the half heard statement. Temari, obviously noticing that Sakura hadn't really heard what she had said, sighed and repeated her statement. "What do you think of this, Sakura? That is your name, isn't it?"  
  
'This' was a rather fetching dark green dress which, whilst the important areas - such as the chest, abdomen and groin - were solid, the rest was a fine netting. The dress was one of the finer outfits that Temari owned. Although she had to admit that it would be somewhat cold to wear, especially since this part of the world had such a different climate to what she was used to - Temari thought it would be rather nice to be able to wear it without having other Sand-nin girls make some stupid, and often slightly insulting, comment about it.  
  
After all, whilst it was quite out of fashion in the Wind country, it was - or so she had guessed from what she had seen in some shops around the village during her exploration with Naruto - quite a new fashion here in the Fire country. This was mostly because of the fact that, due to tenuous relationships between the Wind and the Fire countries, it was difficult to trade directly between the two places. Due to this most trade was routed through one or more of the other major countries which, of course, meant that goods took much, much longer to arrive.  
  
Temari heard Sakura suck in a breath. She saw, with some amusement, that the pink-haired nin-girl was wearing a look of jealousy at the fact that Temari had such a 'fashionable' dress. Well, fashionable in this country anyway.  
  
Sakura pointed at the dress, "T-that's..." She stuttered, "How can any Genin have enough money to afford something like that! It's the newest fashion around!"  
  
"Really?" Temari feigned ignorance. "This old thing? It's one of the least fashionable outfits in the Wind country you know." She smirked slightly as Sakura's face flashed through a series of expressions ranging from shock to confusion and back to jealousy. Eventually, however, the pink-haired ninja hung her head and sighed.  
  
"Yet another person who's prettier than I am." Sakura muttered, feeling somewhat awkward. Granted, she knew that Temari was engaged to Naruto and so couldn't pursue Sasuke - like so many other girls in the village - but what if she caught Sasuke's eye and drew it away from her!? That would be bad. Unlikely, but still bad.  
  
Inner Sakura was screaming in frustration, mostly about how outer Sakura was being a stick-in-the-mud worrier. Finally though, Inner Sakura smirked and, being evil as was her wont, sent several images of a rather attractive - and topless - Sasuke into outer Sakura's consciousness.  
  
Needless to say, Sakura's face went as pink as her hair as she blushed at the mental image.  
  
Temari raised an eyebrow slightly, assuming that the blush was Sakura just being depressive over her looks. Not that Temari knew how to react, she'd never really had any problem with her looks. Pretty, ugly, average... it didn't matter in the end really. Since she believed that if a boy liked a girl, he'd like that girl no matter how she looked.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"You." Began Sasuke, "And Her." It was incredibly obvious that Sasuke didn't approve of such a match.  
  
Not that Naruto cared after all, anything that Sasuke didn't like was a good thing as far as he was concerned. "Yeah," he replied, taking a slash at a training dummy with his kunai.  
  
The two boys were in Naruto's 'training room', taking turns to practise basic taijutsu techniques on the dummies. Whilst Naruto believed that he could easily look better at it than Sasuke if he tried he knew there was no point in doing so. After all, one can only show off if there happens to be someone to watch.  
  
Not that Naruto could beat Sasuke of course, he just believed he could. The concept of 'realistically possible' had never really managed to enter into Naruto's streams of thought. Then again, neither had the concept of 'Self preservation', which said a lot for how robust - if simple - Naruto's thoughts could be.  
  
"She isn't too bad I guess." Murmured the blonde-haired boy as he stepped back for Sasuke to launch into the 'flight of the tiger' taijutsu sequence. "She's pretty," He grinned, a little trail of drool appearing at the corner of his mouth. "Very pretty."  
  
Sasuke glanced over towards Naruto as he performed a series of side- thrusting kicks at the dummies chest area. Fortunately for Naruto he didn't connect Naruto's slightly lecherous look with the injuries Naruto had earlier. F he had linked the two things, he would probably have guessed what Naruto had done to earn those injuries. "And? She's Sand. You know what they did." The Uchiha boy didn't specify what the Sand had done, since he was sure Naruto would realise which event he was talking about.  
  
"She didn't do that." Naruto stated, his eyes flat and glaring. "So it wasn't her fault." He folded his arms in front of him and glared at one corner of the room - purposely avoiding eye contact with Sasuke.  
  
The black-haired boy stopped, a few moves short of finishing the taijutsu sequence and stared at Naruto. "You believe that, don't you?" He muttered. "Her village attacked ours, and you believe it wasn't her fault so she's innocent."  
  
Naruto nodded, turning to look at Sasuke. "She was only following orders, so it's the fault of those who gave those orders. Not hers." This was, in any ways, a prime example of Naruto brand logic. The Uzumaki boy had a rather simplified view of the world, something that Sasuke just couldn't comprehend. It was as if Naruto started with the premise 'everyone is basically good' and then worked down from that, determining who was evil as he went along.  
  
"Besides..." Naruto murmured. "She's lonely."  
  
That comment stopped Sasuke just as he was about to go into a mini lecture. Loneliness was something he understood all to well, as did Naruto. "Lonely?" He asked, not quite believing Naruto's statement.  
  
"Last night..." Began Naruto, "I heard her crying."  
  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
  
"Gah!" Naruto was finding it hard to get comfortable in his chosen sleeping spot. Since he'd been kicked out of what had been his room by his - slightly unwelcome - guest, the boy had been trying to sleep on a variety of things ranging from the floor to the table.  
  
Sitting upright on the table-top he had been trying, Naruto swung his legs off the table and, grabbing his pillow and blanket, shambled off to find a different place to sleep.  
  
Suddenly he stopped. "Huh?" He was sure he had heard something. Listening hard, Naruto could barely make out the sound of sobbing. From the sound if it the noise was coming from upstairs, where Temari slept. Glancing around out of habit he crept over to the staircase, as he drew nearer the sounds grew slightly louder.  
  
By the time he was halfway up the staircase Naruto was able to hear faint words. Temari's voice as she muttered things in her room.  
  
"It's not fair." Naruto paused when he heard Temari's voice, slightly clearer than before. For a moment he wondered if he should go up there, maybe say something.  
  
But then, what could he say?  
  
"I want to go home." Muttered Temari, her voice punctuated by slight sobbing sounds. Naruto stood on the staircase and lowered his head.  
  
So, she was homesick. Lonely too no doubt.  
  
Although it was slightly embarrassing to admit, Naruto was worried about the Ex-Sand girl. Here, in this place, this village, she was alone. As the events of the day had shown she was also disliked - even hated.  
  
Just like he had been.  
  
Sighing to himself the blonde-haired ninja turned and crept back down the stairs. Right now, at this time, there was nothing he could do or say that would make it any easier.  
  
"I'm sorry." He whispered, half to himself and half to the girl upstairs who could not hear him.  
  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
  
"She's homesick." Continued Naruto. "And..." He paused. Whilst normally he would never ask for help, Naruto was beginning to think that just this once he could use some advice. Unfortunately, after thinking his way through the problem Naruto had realised that most people he could ask wouldn't give very good advice.  
  
"And yesterday she was attacked by some Chuunin... we only just got away without getting hurt." Naruto paled slightly and looked away from Sasuke, his teeth clenched in barely-repressed anger. "They tried to kill her!"  
  
Sasuke blinked. As a ninja, he understood that death was something that could happen to anyone, anytime, anyplace. Although... for an attack to occur within village boundaries well, that was just wrong. In fact, for such a thing to happen was, in all technicality, a terrible blow to the villages honour. The Sand had not been the only village to lose out in the attack upon the Leaf. Several ninja from other villages, along with more than a few nobles, had been killed - showing to the world that the Leaf could not protect itself.  
  
Granted, once the rest of the world had been informed of the circumstances behind the fracas, the pressure against the Leaf had lessened and had instead been piled upon the Sand.  
  
"Who were they?" Asked Sasuke, his voice low and menacing. "Did you recognise them? Did they seem like they may try again?" He blinked as he received no response. "Naruto, are you listening-" A snore cut him off. To one side of Sasuke, Naruto had quite happily slid to the floor and was sleeping - albeit rather uncomfortably - on the training room floor.  
  
Sasuke raised one eyebrow in slight amusement. "How the hell do you manage that?" He murmured. Whilst the Uchiha boy was mostly a rather anti-social person to be around, prolonged contact with Naruto and Sakura had slowly chipped away at the barriers he had erected around his personality. Although he was still quite the lone wolf, Sasuke now at least accepted that maybe being put into a team had been a good thing to happen to him.  
  
"... Sleep well Naruto." He murmured, then smiled an evil little smile. "But don't complain to me when you wake up with cramps and pains from sleeping like that."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Knock.  
  
"Uwah?" Naruto sat up slowly, rubbing sleep from his eyes with one hand. As he moved various parts of his body - mostly his back and legs - protested quite loudly about their overnight treatment. Shooting pains shot along his nervous system as he forced cramped limbs to pick him up off the ground and, hopefully, hold him in a standing position.  
  
Knock.  
  
Naruto turned his head slightly in the general direction of the knocking sound. Ah yes. That was why he'd woken up, wasn't it? Well. Standing around here wouldn't achieve much in the way of finding out what the knock was for. Mentally straining against the barriers of both pain and his usual sleepy morning haze, Naruto first willed on leg to move and then the other. Left, right, left, right. A nice constant rhythm of movement.  
  
Knock. Knock.  
  
"I'm coming..." Murmured the blonde-haired boy, mentally noting that he was wearing the same things he had worn yesterday. Well, it wasn't like they were dirty or anything - so they would do until he had dealt with whomever was knocking on his home's front door.  
  
Left, right, left, right. His feet moved sluggishly at first, finally beginning to pick up speed as his sleepiness wore off. By the time he reached the stairs he was no longer dragging his feet and when he reached the bottom of the stairs they were moving up and down in little bouncy steps.  
  
Knock! Knock! Knock!  
  
The knocking was louder now, coming quickly and impatiently. Obviously someone was in a real hurry to get Naruto to open the door, and open it he would - after all, it was bad manners for a guest to open the door of their host's home to what could be complete strangers.  
  
"Gah... Keep it down..." Naruto moaned, as he heard one of the doors upstairs - the one to Temari's room most likely - open with a low creak. "You'll wake everyone up... if you haven't already." The boy took a deep breath, put on what he hoped was a fairly normal looking expression, and opened the door.  
  
His expression brightened slightly when he saw who it was and he grinned. "Oh! Hey th-"  
  
Crunch!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari, clad in a loose dressing gown and whatever she wore underneath, peered down the stairs from the door to her room. Unlike Naruto, she was more fully alert to her surroundings and, due to this, was much less shocked when Naruto flew backwards away from the door than most other people would have been.  
  
Judging from the angle and speed at which Naruto had been sent, it was pretty obvious that someone had just punched him in the face. Also she reasoned that, due to the way he had begun to greet his attacker, it must have been someone that Naruto knew who was on the other side of the door.  
  
Slipping back into her room, Temari shook Sakura until the pink-haired girl was awake, then dressed with speed that had come from many, many hours of practice. After all, having to dress quickly could save a ninja's life - or the lives of other people - if an attack came whilst they were asleep. This was, of course, because a ninja's clothing often contained a vast amount of weapons, scrolls and medicines secreted around them, all items which could be vital to a ninja's fighting style or specialist skills. Such as, for instance, medical ninja and their vast arrays of medicines.  
  
The body netting she ignored, it had it's uses but right now it would just take too long to get on. Instead she grabbed her jacket-dress, pulled it on and peeked out the window that looked out onto the space in front of Naruto's house.  
  
Evidently the fight had moved outside, for Naruto was frantically dodging and ducking attacks from two other boys whilst making his own retaliatory attempts whenever he got the chance. Eventually though, Naruto was caught in the terrible position of having an opponent on either side of him.  
  
Temari could have left him to fend for himself. After all, the two boy's weren't attacking to kill - she could see that easily - instead they were attacking to injure. Whatever the reason for the attack, it was probably something Naruto deserved.  
  
But then...  
  
If she had been down there, she had no doubt that Naruto would have jumped in without any thought whatsoever.  
  
Temari smirked slightly, her course of action decided.  
  
Grabbing her fan, Temari slammed open the window and leapt out - instinctively pushing her Chakra through her arm and into the giant wood and paper construct that was her weapon.  
  
A weapon that she had just opened up.  
  
"NINPOU... KAMAITACHI!"  
  
Chapter 6 - end.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes:  
  
Hachacha... been a busy few weeks x.x finishing off art projects and setting up my end of year exhibition. Which explains why this one took a while ^^;;  
  
Anyway, like usual, not stopped other ficcie blah blah blah. I think I'm gonna have to say this every time o.o;; as I do get the off e-mail asking if I'm continuing 'to be strong' x.x  
  
Speaking of e-mails, I have a great big rant-thing for those people who seem to enjoy sending offensive e-mail flames at me. -.- but that can wait until the end of this yes.  
  
Sooo... Sasuke has a bit of humour. Albeit the sort that revolves around other people's pain and/or dumbness. o.o;; (I'm surprised dumbness is an actual word... weird, huh?)  
  
So. Some random questions and answers (or at least evasions o.o;) : Q: What can Temari do? A: besides her Kamaitachi? Well, she's smart - though not as smart as Shikamaru, she's obviously smarter than a big chunk of the cast. I personally think she's a bit smarter than Sasuke and Sakura (re: much smarter than Naruto . ) I think, in terms of IQ, I'd rate her about 130- 140, - assuming Sakura / Sasuke are in the area of 120 and Naruto is about 90-100. (and Shikamaru, of course, at over 200 x.x )  
  
Q: Are you going to make Temari a one-trick pony? A: well, pay close attention. Most ninja are one trick ponies. For my examples I state Shikamaru (kagemane no jutsu), Choji (multi-size no jutsu) and Ino (Shintenshin no jutsu). Other than that, no comment o.o  
  
Q: Will you be the mother of my child? A: o.o;; not unless I have a sex change.  
  
Q: When does the next part come out? A: Considering that this question was asked before I finished chapter six... this *is* the next part =P (note the cheap evasion of the question there ^^; )  
  
Q: Do the titles actually mean anything? A: yes and no. When some highly plot-important thing occurs, the title will usually have some relevance. Otherwise it can be anything. Beware the day I title a chapter whilst I'm on a sugar rush... hehehehe...  
  
--------------  
  
And for now o.o I'll promise that i'll try my best to keep everything interesting. ^.^  
  
- Lackey H, meditating on an Intoxicated Ino. (H: Mmmm. soft ^.^ Ino: Oi! Getoff! You're heavy! . )  
  
And now, unfortunately, for that rant I mentioned. This rant has seen light already in 'To be strong', but it's here for those people who don't read that. -.-  
  
=========================================================  
  
This is being added in response to several nasty, rather insulting, e-mails I've received from a variety of people.  
  
If you want to criticise me, go ahead, as long as it's constructive I don't mind. In fact, I like having people give advice on those little things that help me improve my work. (Especially one kind person who pointed out a little grammar error I kept making. ^^;; One I hope to avoid making in the future now that I know about it.)  
  
If you want to try flaming me then go get a coin and buy yourself a clue. I'm really getting sick of people who send insulting flames about things which they don't know  
  
Firstly, the plot of my writing - I'm the author, I know what happens next, these flamers don't so they have no right to flame me on what hasn't happened yet.  
  
You can flame me on what *has* happened if you so wish, but not on what you think I will write.  
  
Secondly, the facts of the Naruto world. I, like all people, have my own take on some things. (such as the specifics of the Henge - transformation - no jutsu and Kuchiyose - summoning - no jutsu) I don't mind people having their own views on how a technique works. At present neither technique has been thoroughly explained in Canon so we're free to come up with our own theories.  
  
What I don't like is when people ream me because they don't like my theory.  
  
Asking if I'm sure of what I wrote is fair enough, pointing out instances of things that could disprove my theory is fine but when people insult, swear and deride me. Well. They can get stuffed.  
  
Finally, if you have a complaint with something that is a Canon fact - please don't moan at me unless you can prove you're right. I'm getting kinda sick of having to repeatedly point out instances in the Manga which prove my side and ruin the other side of the argument.  
  
I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just getting tired of being insulted for no good reason by people who are too lazy to wait for an explanation, too dumb to check the facts or too close-minded to accept any other theory.  
  
I'm sorry this rant had to go here and I hope another will never be needed.  
  
- Lackey H, sorry this rant had to be written. 


	7. Anger

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 7 - Anger.  
  
Naruto dodged, ducked and jumped in a mad rush of movement. As he moved fists, feet or worse slammed through the space in which he had, mere moments ago, stood. Many of the blows came so close to hitting that the young ninja could feel them just barely brush against the very edges of his form.  
  
The fight had, after a few tense moments just inside the front hall of Naruto's home, spilled out into the street after Naruto had quite luckily managed to vault over his first opponent.  
  
Most would ask why Naruto didn't fight back. That, in and of itself, was a simple question, with a simpler answer. To be brutally honest, Naruto did not fight back simply because he could not.  
  
His two opponents were working in tandem, keeping their attacks so syncronised that it was all the blonde-haired boy could do just to avoid them. Eventually the teamwork of his opponents paid off as one swung a low sweeping kick at his legs, forcing him to jump up - and right into the path of a second, much higher, kick that came from his other opponent.  
  
"Ugh!" Naruto grunted as he swung one arm up to block, or at least cushion, the kick. Even though he managed it - barely - the blow felt like he had just been slammed around with an iron tetsubo mace. Needless to say, the orange clad youth was sent flying backwards from the blow.  
  
"Ha!" One of his opponents, a wild-looking black-haired youth who went by the name of Inuzuka Kiba, shouted at Naruto's other opponent, the much more reserved and calm Aburame Shino. The bug-using ninja lowered his leg from the high kick position it had been in when it had struck Naruto.  
  
Not waiting for Naruto to get back up, Kiba leapt at the boy - his hands stretched out like claws. In fact, they were claws - another little side benefit he gained from using the Inuzuka clan's main jutsu - the Quadruped no Jutsu.  
  
"NINPOU... KAMAITACHI!"  
  
Kiba had the barest fraction of a second to glance in the direction the yell had come from before he was slammed - mid leaf - into the ground by an enormous blast of high air pressure. In a way it was lucky, as the user had quite nicely let her chakra be somewhat diffused, leading towards a solid blast rather than a focused blade of air.  
  
Temari landed a few moments after Kiba's body bounced upon the ground. She stood with her legs slightly spread apart and with one hand resting on her hips. Her fan stood, folded, next to her being held up with her free hand. In all truth, Temari's pose oozed an air of smug superiority and confidence.  
  
"Just what," she began, "Is the reason for this?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hinata had stopped crying.  
  
Well, no. Actually she was still crying but at least now she didn't feel so bad about it. About Naruto. About her shattered dream of him and her and maybe a few kids when they got older and...  
  
Hinata had started crying again.  
  
Last night her team-mates Kiba and Shino had quite nicely taken her back - not to her home, for that would have been even worse for her, but instead to the meeting room that their team had. Fortunately the meeting room was intended to be used as emergency shelter, so the two boys had found no trouble in setting up a bed for her to sleep in.  
  
Granted, she was fairly sure that Kiba had probably taken an opportunity to get a free peek - or a quick feel, but then that was Kiba all over. He may be somewhat lecherous at times, and sometimes he could be annoyingly stupid with his crazy boasting but none of that really mattered. After all, when the chips were down Kiba was everything a girl could ask for in a friend - loyal, trustworthy, a guy who didn't give up.  
  
"But he isn't Naruto..." Murmured Hinata, not really paying attention to her surroundings. Since the, admittedly rather early, time she had woken up she had been aimlessly wandering around the village. About the only location she was trying to avoid was Naruto's home - she just felt that she couldn't bear to see him again yet.  
  
"Who isn't Naruto?" Asked a rather sunny and, to be honest, overly cheery female voice. Raising her gaze from the floor she had been staring at, Hinata came face to face with the villages self proclaimed most beautiful shinobi.  
  
Yamanaka Ino.  
  
"Oh..." Whispered the Hyuuga girl, "It's just you." For the most part Hinata had never really spoken with Ino before. Granted there were the odd pleasantries which were murmured on the few times the two ran across each other. Then again, Hinata tended to murmur such things to everyone, something that had earned her a rather nice reputation of being one of the most well mannered Genin in the village.  
  
"Hey! What do you mean by 'It's just you'?" Ino frowned as she spoke, feeling slightly insulted. A moment passed, as did her feeling of annoyance - which was replaced with a rather concerned look. "Hinata? Have you been crying?"  
  
Hinata bit her lower lip and looked away. She didn't want anyone to get involved in her problems, it just wouldn't be nice to burden others with her worries and tears. The Hyuuga girl moved to turn and walk away when a hand was placed on her shoulder.  
  
"Hey," Stated Ino, as she gripped Hinata's shoulder just enough to prevent her from leaving. "Don't run off, at least come inside and wipe those tear- stains off of your face." The blonde haired Genin smiled widely, "You look prettier without them you know."  
  
Hinata blushed slight at the compliment - it wasn't everyday that anyone, guy or girl, said she looked pretty. Heck, most people just ignored her or passed her off as the 'failed' Hyuuga. Granted, her reputation had changed slightly since the chuunin exams, but she was still considered the 'failed' member of her family. "Uhm..." She hesitated, "O-okay..."  
  
"Great!" Ino grabbed hold of Hinata's arm and half led, half dragged her into the Yamanaka family flower shop. "So," The more cheerful girl began as she pulled Hinata inside, "Just why were you crying so much to have such awful tear-stains like that anyway?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari glared at the two Genin, though she did have to try really hard not to screw her face up in revulsion at the sight of a bug-covered Shino. Still, this was her combat mask - the thick mental and emotional shell she built around herself when she needed it. In fact, it was this shell between her and her emotions which meant that she occasionally came off looking like a bit of a psycho.  
  
Then again, years of living with a younger brother who had a nasty tendency to crush people he didn't like also brought forth some rather disturbing qualities. In fact, most of her mental shell had been erected so that she didn't throw up each time Gaara used his 'Desert graveyard' technique.  
  
In short, when her combat persona was up, Temari often ended up acting like quite the cheerful little psychopath.  
  
"So, are you going to tell me?" She asked, her voice sweet - though her expression was not, "Or will I have to cut your heads open to get the answer straight from your minds?"  
  
Kiba paled slightly. Given that all his knowledge of Temari had been gained from the Chuunin exam - and more than one rather disturbing story from Shikamaru's team - he was undeniably worried. After all, as far as he knew, Temari didn't act like a cheerful psychopath - she was a cheerful psychopath!  
  
Shino, on the other hand, merely raised a questioning eyebrow.  
  
Finally, Naruto who stood on the other side of Temari, freaked out - not realising that Temari's act was just that, an act.  
  
"GAAH!" He half-screamed, "You can't cut their heads open!" His face was one of shock mixed with horror. Temari glanced back and Naruto and sighed - trust that idiot to not notice a ruse.  
  
"You're bluffing." Stated Shino from where he stood opposite Temari. "Your body is releasing pheromones that indicate a mix of fear and panicked thought - in other words, it smells like you're lying." The boy held up one hand, which was covered in crawling bugs. "I note that as I raised the insects, your fear pheromone production increased." He grinned, not that anyone could see it, hidden by his overly large collar as it was. "You wouldn't be afraid of insects would you?"  
  
Temari gulped, her skin paling slightly. Damn it! She'd heard from Kankuro that the insect-using boy was overly smart and, in particular, very good at what he did, but still... For him to pick all that up in a few moments... "N-no..." She stuttered, then caught herself. "No!" She repeated, this time yelling so as to avoid stuttering. "Why would I be afraid of some useless little bugs!?"  
  
Shino nodded in the direction of the ground near Temari's feet. "Really?" he asked.  
  
Temari knew what was going to be there even before she looked down. "No, nonononono..." She looked down, her eyes half closed. Bugs. Hundreds of them, thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands of them even. Now Temari was torn, on the one hand she wanted to scream and scram and scream, but on the other hand she didn't want to show any more weakness to her opponents - or to Naruto.  
  
"K-KAMAITACHI!" She screamed, hopping backwards and snapping open her fan whipping it through a large arc in front of her. This time however, she concentrated her chakra a bit more, causing the wind blast to be somewhat more solid as well as somewhat smaller. The blast tore into the ground, ripping up both the bugs and the dirt floor. Kiba yelled as he and his companion were showered with bugs, dirt and various other things that had been in the path of Temari's kamaitachi technique.  
  
Shino, however, merely nodded his head once. Almost immediately Temari felt something wrong with her fan. It felt like it was moving slightly - as if there were something inside... Her eyes widened in shock as she dropped the fan, the first of many small insects beginning to squirm out from under the wood that made up the frame of the fan.  
  
"Sawtooth bugs," Murmured Shino, "A distant relation of the Destruction bug, their favourite food is dry, dead wood. A single nest of them can eat through almost a ton of wood in a matter of hours." Shino looked up and glanced at Temari with an evil little smirk. "Something like your fan was merely a light snack to them."  
  
Temari's eye twitched.  
  
It twitched again.  
  
Temari had always done her best to control her emotions, to keep them under lock and key as long as she possibly could. Recently, however, she'd been letting a few things slip - especially since she had come to the Leaf village. Mostly, she felt she could get away with it a lot more here because she wasn't pressured each day to be 'the best of the ninja world' like she was back at the Sand village.  
  
Here eye twitched somewhat more as she turned away from her fan to glare at Shino. Her glare was, amazingly, strong enough to cause even the unflappable Shino to falter a little.  
  
"You." She stated, in a voice as cold as death, and twice as unfriendly.  
  
"Destroyed." Naruto was worried now, Temari seemed so, so... so scary. Like a flash of insight, the blonde-haired boy realised what could have made Temari so mad.  
  
"My fan." Temari advanced on Shino and Kiba, her chakra - due to her anger - being leaked out as a pure killing intent, one that would rival even her younger brother Gaara's own killing intent.  
  
"That fan," she whispered, "Was the last thing my mother gave me."  
  
"Oh shit..." Kiba squeaked, since he was still under the influence of his Quadruped no Jutsu, he could feel Temari's killing intent much, much more strongly than Shino could. It felt sort of like how a mouse felt, moments before being snatched up by a hawk or a cat.  
  
Behind Temari, Naruto was planning on instinct - as he usually did. His hands moved in a blur as he performed his signature Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and created three clones of himself. The four Naruto bodies all began running towards Temari, with three of them picking up the fourth as they did so.  
  
"I'll kill you!" Screamed Temari, Raising her hands as if to strike with a weapon - in her rage she had momentarily forgotten that her fan was gone.  
  
"Advanced Henge no Jutsu!" Yelled the fourth Naruto clone, as the other three hurled him towards Temari. In mid air his form blurred slightly, then vanished I na cloud of smoke - allmost immediately something big, buzzing and black whirled out of the smoke-cloud like some kind of giant shuriken.  
  
Temari spun on one foot, saw what Naruto had done and grinned evilly. Her arms swept up and caught the transformed Naruto clone.  
  
It was black, with a pattern of red and orange spirals that, in fact, Temari quite liked the look of. It was also slightly lighter, but that wasn't a problem.  
  
"Now then," she growled, twirling the giant fan that the clone had turned into around. "Let's play... Wind style taijutsu! Sabaku Juuji!" Temari spun, and as she spun she slashed her open Naruto-fan lengthways in a downward diagonal blow that ripped along Shino's attempt at a block. Then as she spun back to her original position, she slashed upwards with a similar diagonal blow - which completely ripped through Shino's block, slashing his shirt open and leaving a light scratch along his chest. Effectively, it looked like she had used her fan to carve a giant 'X' shape through the air.  
  
Kiba jumped out of the way of the partially crazed blonde-haired girl, cursing to himself as he did so. Unfortunately for the dog-boy, he never landed - as his jump was quite neatly interrupted by the remaining three Narutos. "Going somewhere?" They asked, before beginning to beat upon the wild animalistic boy.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"That sand-nin girl huh?" Ino's voice was sweet - like sugar, yet filled with obvious concern for Hinata. The two weren't exactly friends, but Ino knew enough about Hinata to take pity on the white-eyed girl... Just like she had taken pity on a certain girl with a large forehead all those years ago.  
  
"Didn't you hear the rumours?" She continued, "That there was going to be a political marriage arranged between our village and the sand village? You know, the whole 'we're in trouble, so take her whilst we try to cover ourselves' thing?"  
  
Hinata blinked and sat silent for a few moments before nodding. "Oh." She said, several things coming together in her mind in one go. "I didn't know about that." She whispered, her voice barely heard over the sounds of life passing by outside.  
  
"Sooo..." Continued Ino, "It's not like Naruto was intentionally getting himself engaged to this girl, right?"  
  
"I... I guess..." Mumbled the Hyuuga girl, which cause Ino to roll her eyes and slap her hand against her forehead.  
  
"Has anyone ever told you," She began, "That you really need to get some self confidence?" her question was asked innocently and with the hinting that, perhaps if Hinata agreed, she might help her do just that.  
  
Blushing slightly, Hinata bowed her head in embarrassment. "Y... yes..."  
  
Laughing, Ino scooted over to sit next to Hinata and slapped the slightly shorter girl on the back. "Stick with me! Once I'm done with you, you'll be the most sought after girl in all the village!" Then she grinned, the evil grin that only women were capable of - the grin that meant certain males would be in for it sooner or later. "And then, you'll show Naruto just exactly what he's missing out on..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Kiba ducked and dodged around blows that came at him from three separate directions. Atop his head, Akamaru kept his eye on one of the Naruto clones and barked in a special way to warn the Inuzuka boy about incoming blows. In effect, Kiba did have eyes in the back of his head.  
  
Well, somewhat above the back of his head at least.  
  
"Hyaaaaa!" One Naruto clone, or possibly the original - it was rather hard to tell, leapt into the air before coming down with one leg out - hoping to smash Kiba with what was effectively an aerial axe kick. As he did this, a second Naruto lucked out and managed to grab hold of Kiba's jacket - a minor thing, but it held him still long enough for the third Naruto to wrap his arms around the boy from behind. All this merely served to make Kiba a sitting target for the first Naruto's attack.  
  
Kiba, realising he wasn't going to dodge the kick tried something drastic. Ducking down, despite Naruto's hold, he pulled forwards and lifted the boy who held him off his feet and into the air. Naruto only guessed what this meant when he heard the scream of 'look out!' from the kicking Naruto above.  
  
You see, Kiba had managed to place his captor between himself and the axe kick coming from the first Naruto. When the attack hit, it would hurt them both - but it would hurt Naruto a lot more than it would hurt him.  
  
The axe kick landed, with a rather sickening crunch, on the back of the third Naruto - who promptly vanished in a puff of smoke as the real Naruto lost control over the clone long enough for it to lose cohesion. Kiba, on the other hand, had been forced to his knees by the sheer power of the kick and, although he wasn't directly injured, he could still feel pain in the area where the kick had landed.  
  
"Heh," The animal-like boy sneered, "Was that the best you could d-" He never got the chance to finish his boast, as the second Naruto quite neatly kicked him in the stomach - driving the air out of his lungs and leaving him winded.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Woah, that must have hurt something awful!" exclaimed a male ninja as he watched the fight from a distance. A rather incredible distance in fact, one that few nin could possibly see from. Luckily for him, he had been trained in the art of observation - and his chakra enhanced sight was better than any telescope.  
  
His companion, a female, lay nearby. She didn't have the benefit of enhanced sight, and so could not possibly see the fight in progress. "So," she asked, "Do you see anything that could be an advantage to us?"  
  
The man lifted one hand and waved it uncomfortably. "Well..." He began, "We already know that the rest of the village doesn't like her, or him, but he has found acceptance with a few of the Genin - along with that Jounin instructor of his."  
  
"Don't forget those rumours we heard about the Sennin either." Pointed of the female, her voice somewhat irritated.  
  
"Yeah," agreed the male, as he watched the fight progress - wincing when Naruto went and sued his 'lifetime of agony' technique. "I bet he won't be walking straight for a while after that..." He mumbled, before raising his voice so that his companion could hear. "I reckon we could have a problem if she stays too long - It'll be hard enough with a Jounin around, but if the others start rushing to her aid we could have trouble."  
  
"Well, I for one don't want to fight that Naruto boy if I can get away with it." Stated the girl, "You heard what happened in his fight with Hyuuga right?" She shuddered slightly, the man echoing her movements - and her fear.  
  
"Nine-tails." He whispered, then made a little warding sign over his chest with one hand. "No way in hell I wanna risk that thing coming out when we're nearby."  
  
"I guess we just have to watch, and wait a while longer then." Stated the girl in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "I just hope the reward will be worth all this waiting."  
  
"Eh, calm down, you know what he promised - we do the job, we get what we want and he gets what he wants. No problems." The guy leant back as he spoke and sighed. "Still, this is a lot of hassle. Wanna go grab something to eat? We're not allowed to do anything for a while yet, and it's not like anyone even suspects what's going on..." He paused, then cocked his head slightly - "My treat?"  
  
The girl sighed and pulled herself to her feet. "We might as well, there's nothing better for us to do right now anyway."  
  
There was a slight blurring in the air, followed by two clouds of dust which hid the exit of the two mystery ninja.  
  
Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the single solitary figure who sat, hidden in plain sight, at the base of the building they had been situated upon. Brushing back his masses of spiky white hair, Jiraiya - the toad Sennin himself - closed his eyes in thought.  
  
"Well now," He whispered, "Looks like things will be getting a little more interesting in the future."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari attacked like a woman possessed.  
  
That said, she was a woman possessed - or at least Shino believed so. Whilst, normally, he would have little difficulty In a fight, Temari was proving to be quite to opponent.  
  
On one hand, she had an intellect and a skill of foresight and planning that was only eclipsed by the genius Shikamaru. On the other, she had that incredibly annoying Kamataichi technique - which had repeatedly proved to be more than effective at scattering any bugs he sent her way.  
  
The two combined were definitely a difficult opponent for him, as she seemed to know exactly when he would try to ambush or trick her with his bugs. Of course, then she would take the appropriate steps and force him even further onto the defensive.  
  
In fact, the only real advantage that Shino had, was that Temari was afraid of bugs. On the other hand, she was too angry to be afraid, so that more or less left that advantage a moot point anyway.  
  
Finally Shino decided to pull out one of his trump cards - one of his real trump cards. The kind that usually left opponents in great pain - or worse. Brining his hands together, he executed a short sequence of seals, one that Temari had never seen before in her life. Thus, it was either a family jutsu, or one unique to the leaf village as a whole.  
  
"Doudou Sutingu no Jutsu!" From within one sleeve extended a short spike of metal - like a needle, though somewhat thinner. Unlike normal metal spikes, this one was made out of a bronze-like material which seemed to pulse with a sickly purple energy. If Kakashi or Sasuke had been watching, they would have instantly seen the strange twisting chakra that curled and oozed around the spike like some kind of slime.  
  
With a quick stabbing motion Shino made as if to stab Temari with the spike. Unfortunately, Temari had anticipated the move as soon as she had seen the spike appear, and so had leaned to one side in order to let the thing pass by. Her quick thinking and action saved her from having her arm impaled upon the spike, instead all she received was the tiniest of scratches.  
  
Shino hopped back and bowed his head, leaving Temari more than a little confused.  
  
"It is over." He stated. "You have lost."  
  
Chapter 7 - Ended. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes: Whee... I apologise most profusely for taking so long with this chapter x.x but really, I constantly re-wrote some parts of it so many times because I wasn't happy with them.  
  
Anyway, expect the chapters to be a bit slower x.x I've got so much free time on my hands I'm just wallowing in boredom - and boredom-inspired writing generally isn't as good (well, I feel it isn't at least). Of course, since I dun' wanna ruin this by giving you a rushed or lacking chapter, I'll keep working at my own pace and trying to keep the quality up ^.^  
  
I'm gonna thank everyone who's said they've liked this fic ^^;; as well as all those who have e-mailed me saying they wish to see more.  
  
When I started this I never in a million years expected people to like it x.x and I still don't =P Reviews are good, but I'm not going to abandon everything just to go out of my way in getting lots of them - that's just not my style. (yeah... I'd probably die of terror or something if I tried that ^^;; some of you people who like this scare me ^^;;)  
  
Anyway. Two original techniques in this chapter - if you disagree with the naming, tell me o.o;; I do wanna try and get things to at least sound right ^^;;  
  
Lackey H - Meditating upon Temari of the Sand.  
  
TECHNIQUE GLOSSARY -  
  
Sabaku Juuji - Desert Crossing (Kudos if you understand the pun there...)  
  
Doudou Sutingu - Magnificent Sting. 


	8. Scenes

Betrothal A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 8 - Scenes.  
  
Birds flew low overhead, their bodies casting shadows upon the ground the pair were walking on.  
  
"Your first goal," Began the first ninja, a female with an odd dress sense and blonde hair. "Is to find out just what is going on. After all, if it is this arranged marriage I've heard rumours about, then it's not exactly Naruto's fault, is it?" Yamanaka Ino nodded to herself as she talked, her voice clear and lecturing.  
  
Beside her the black haired ninja, Hyuuga Hinata just nodded. Her face had been cleaned - washing away those awful tear-stains which had covered it earlier - and Ino had quite nicely given her a little flower to tuck in her hair just behind one ear. This particular flower was a rather large variety of daisy which, according to Ino meant - in the language of flowers - 'Innocence and Purity'.  
  
Not that Hinata was too worried about what it meant, she just thought it looked rather nice. It was this mindset which meant she had to transfer from flower arranging to a different girls subject during her time in the academy. After all, she just didn't mind what flowers meant as long as they looked nice - not the best way to go about formal flower arranging.  
  
"So, do you remember what you're going to do when we get there?" Asked Ino, hoping that Hinata would remember the 'plan' she had concocted just before they had set off.  
  
"Uhm..." whispered Hinata, "Yes?" She blushed slightly and began to outline the, rather simple, plan. Well, simple to anyone but her at least. After all, no-one else would have to work through a lifetime of shyness and embarrassment for it to work. "F-first I knock on the door," she started, and glanced at Ino's nod of approval, "Then I ask to talk with... with N- naruto-kun..."  
  
"In private." Prompted Ino.  
  
"Y-yes, in pr-private..." Hinata blushed again at the mental image of her and Naruto alone in private.  
  
"And then you ask him 'what the hell is going on'" Finished Ino, "You may want to slap him once or twice to get his attention though."  
  
Hinata stared wide-eyed at Ino, "I-I couldn't do that!" She half-whispered, half-exclaimed. "I-it would be... be rude!"  
  
"Oh, yeah. Well, I guess you can ask him however you want - as long as you get the answer to the question of 'what is going on'." Amended the taller blonde-haired girl, "And, well... Oh! Hey, we're almost there."  
  
The two girls went quiet, one blushing due to her overactive imagination, the other walking with a confidence that could only stem from a large ego.  
  
And as they turned the corner that led onto the street outside Naruto's home, both of them froze in an identical state of shock.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Aburame Shino stood, his pose that of one who knows they're right, a short distance from a collapsing blonde-haired girl - the ex-sand-nin Sabakuno Temari.  
  
"It is over." Stated Shino, "You have lost."  
  
Temari blinked in shock before further doubling over in pain, clutching at her scratched arm as if it were being burnt beyond all recognition. Suddenly she realized just why Shino claimed that she had lost after she had taken just one measly little scratch.  
  
"Poison." She spat, before falling to her knees in agony.  
  
"Yes." Replied Shino, "My Doudou Sutingu no Jutsu lets me transform my Chakra into a highly potent chakra-poison, much like the kind some insects use to paralyze most smaller predators." He smiled and peered over the top of his sunshades "Unfortunately, I'm not yet skilled enough to pass it on without physical contact yet. This, however, will serve just as well."  
  
"And you think you've won?" Ground out the collapsed girl, her voice hoarse and dry. "Think again."  
  
"Hm?" Shino had a moment to consider Temari's odd statement before a booted foot smashed into his side with enough force to send him flying. As he flew to one side, pain burning into his body, he glanced back to see that it was Naruto who had kicked him.  
  
'But how?' he thought, before noticing what was missing from the scene of his fight with Temari. His eyes widened in shock at the trap he had fallen for. 'The fan!'  
  
For indeed, the fan that one Naruto clone had transformed into was no longer there. Mostly because that clone had dropped the transformation in order to let lose the kick that had hit the bug using ninja.  
  
He was vaguely aware that he had been kicked in the direction of Kiba, who had already been beaten down and out. Unfortunately this left two Narutos who both wore identical expressions of rage upon their faces.  
  
One Naruto darted forwards, then ducked down before delivering a vicious thrusting kick upwards - which slammed into the still airborne Shino and launched him much higher up into the air. Right up, in fact, to where the third Naruto had jumped and was now waiting for him.  
  
Shino's eyes went wide moments before his breath was forced out of his body as the third Naruto spun - in a forwards somersault - and slammed one leg into his gut with an almost perfect somersault kick.  
  
The last thing Shino thought, moments before he slammed into the hard ground below and lost consciousness, was that making Naruto angry was a really stupid thing to do.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Ino and Hinata both stared, mutely, as Shino's body bounced off of the floor not more than a few meters away.  
  
Of the two, it was the Hyuuga girl that was the first to speak. "Wh-what," she began, "Wh-why are... are Shino-kun and Nar-Naruto-kun fighting?"  
  
Her blond haired companion sighed and strode forwards, grabbing Hinata by the arm and gently dragging her along as she did so. "That is just what we're going to find out." She murmured, "And then, we're going to have you talk to Naruto."  
  
Hinata blushed slightly as Ino led her towards the crumpled forms of Shino and Temari, the latter of which was obviously still conscious. At least, she appeared conscious, if her constant muttered cursing was to be any judge.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was cold.  
  
Dark too.  
  
Then again, she hadn't opened her eyes yet - which would neatly explain why everything was dark.  
  
'you lost, didn't you?'  
  
The voice was soft, almost ghostly in it's silken sound. She knew it wasn't the voice of anyone she knew and, since she couldn't hear anything else, she was guessing that it came from somewhere inside her own head.  
  
'Again, you failed. As always you tripped up at the last moment.' Taunted the voice, 'Sometimes I wonder, do you even want to win?'  
  
She shied back from the accusation, though she knew it to be true. She'd always been the one to come last, to be the failure, to mess up at the last second.  
  
It wasn't that she was weak, no, she was strong. Strong as anything!  
  
... It was just...  
  
Well...  
  
Everyone else was stronger.  
  
She wasn't weak, nope. Not at all. She was just not quite as strong as everyone else.  
  
Hey, someone had to be at the bottom, right?  
  
'You keep telling yourself that.' Stated the voice, 'Maybe someday you may even believe it.'  
  
The last thing she remembered of the dreamlike conversation, was the ghostly laugh of the voice as it left her to think upon her weakness.  
  
A weakness that she, Sabakuno Temari, wished she didn't have.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"We were only doing it for you Hinataaaaa!" Whined the black haired, feral- looking ninja. His dog, perched atop his head, whined alongside his master's voice.  
  
"Do you really think she would have wanted you to try beating Naruto into the dirt!?" Shrieked one of the other occupants of the sparse training-room of Naruto's which everyone had decided to gather in.  
  
Well. No. Actually Ino was the one that had decided that they were going to gather in there and she had, quite happily, dragged a battered Kiba along with her.  
  
By the ears no less.  
  
"Well, uhh..." Kiba reddened slightly and looked down at his feet. "We, uhm... we didn't exactly wait around to find out..."  
  
"So instead," began the blonde-haired kunoichi, "You decided to go beat up a perfectly innocent guy!" She paused and thought over that comment. "... Well, as innocent as he's ever gonna get anyway."  
  
"Why Kiba-san?" Hinata's voice cut into the conversation like a sharpened kunai - quietly and highly effectively. "Why did you w-want to?" Her lip trembled slightly as she looked at her teammate with eyes that saw everything.  
  
In response to Hinata's stare, Kiba flushed red and went back to glaring at his feet. "He made you cry." Mumbled the wild boy, his voice low and his face practically glowing red.  
  
"Awwwwwww..." Ino practically floated between the two, her hands clasped together and held up against one cheek. "That's so cuuuuuuuute!" She squealed, her eyes sparkling with either mischief or amusement. "Little Kiba-kun has a crush on Hinataaaa!"  
  
Almost instantly the wild-haired boy went red in a mix of embarrassment and anger. "I do not!" He yelled, leaning threateningly over the slightly shorter Ino, "She's a friend! That's all!"  
  
With that simple outburst, Inuzuka Kiba stomped out of the room, slamming the door shut hard enough to make both girls jump at the sound.  
  
Shaking her head at the general stupidity of the male species, Ino glanced over at Hinata. The pale girl's eyes had teared up slightly - from both a little fear at Kiba's shouting and the actual content of his shouting. Granted, Hinata didn't like her team-mate in that way, but it still hurt a bit to hear him deny such an accusation so loudly.  
  
"Girl," Whispered the Yamanaka child, "Sometimes you're a little too naive." She sighed and turned to leave and, louder, called over to her 'friend'. "Hey, Hinata-chan! Once we sort this out, why don't you, me and Sakura go show Temari the hot springs, okay?"  
  
Hinata blinked away her tears and nodded. A nice soak in the hot springs nearby would by just the thing she needed to feel a bit better.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"It's a nasty little chakra-created poison really, but he was never aiming to kill her - so it isn't as bad as it could be." Murmured the, rather plain, medical-nin as he bustled around Temari's prone form. Beside him, looking thoroughly worried was the short blond haired Naruto that everyone knew - and disliked.  
  
"She'll be okay, right? Right!?" He demanded, bouncing up and down on the spot to attract the medical-nin's attention. "She's not gonna be sick for long or anything is she?"  
  
The medical specialist glanced at Naruto, causing the boy to flinch back slightly from his glare. Then again, Naruto had been receiving that sort of glare ever since he was you, so it didn't worry him too much. "She will live." He stated, his tone of voice clearly indicating that this was not the result he had hope for.  
  
Naruto practically jumped for joy at that statement, though his joy was somewhat dampened by the medical-nin's obvious dislike for Temari. Still, Temari was going to recover - that was the important thing.  
  
Sometimes, Naruto really didn't know how he felt about Temari.  
  
Although he still didn't quite trust her all that much - mostly because of who she happened to be related to - he had to admit that she wasn't particularly bad. She was pretty, that was a definate, and she was smart too. Smarter than he was easily.  
  
Yet, she also seemed to be, well, somewhat broken. This was only made worse by the fact that the vast majority of the leaf village disliked her or just plain despised her presence in the village.  
  
It was sort of like how the felt about him really.  
  
Odd that.  
  
Then again, if they didn't like him, then most of them wouldn't give a damn about what he did in life - which explained why he was selected to be engaged to Temari. After all, Naruto could just imagine the uproar that would have arisen had someone like Hyuuga or some other ninja that was liked by the village were to have been selected for this 'honor'.  
  
Naruto wasn't aware of it, but the medical-nin had left, along with Kakashi - who had been just generally making sure that nothing else should happen - leaving the blonde haired boy alone with the blonde haired girl.  
  
"So..." He whispered, half to himself, as he sat down on a stool next to the bed in which Temari lay. "What happens now?" He asked at last, staring at Temari's face.  
  
'you know', prodded a little part of the boy's mind, 'she really is quite cute when she's asleep...'  
  
"Wake up soon Temari," Murmured the now somewhat muddled genin who was currently feeling rather confused at what his heart, and mind, were telling him. "I still have to thank you for helping me out back then after all."  
  
Chapter 8 - ended  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors note: Yeah, yeah. short chapter. I know, so don't complain, please? ^^;;  
  
There is a reason, and the reason is this - this may be my last week with actual internet access until december x.x See, i'm heading off to live in a little place near the university i'm going to be attending for the next three years, and the place i'm gonna live in has no internet access.  
  
BUT! I have been discussing with my roomies, the possibility of getting the place hooked up with internet access - but as of yet, we don't know if it'll go ahead or not.  
  
Sooo... I thought i'd better warn you that there won't be any updates until I return home (to my beloved cable) during the school holiday in december.  
  
This does not mean i'll stop writing - if anything, it means i'll write more (as, for some reason, my motivation for writing plummeted during the holidays of my previous year in school as well as this summer x.x odd huh?)  
  
Basically, this chapter is short because i have only a day or two left - and i really wanted to inform you all about this extended lack of updates. *then again, it's not like i update often anyway .;;)  
  
Nyah - expect big things when the next update finally rolls around yah? ^.~  
  
- Lackey H, Preparing to answer the questions of life, the universe and Temari. 


	9. Family

Betrothal A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 9 - Family.  
  
"Haaaaaa." The room was quiet apart from the soft sound of Sakura's breath as she meditated. Her upper body moved slightly with each breath as the pink-haired girl continued with her highly important trance. The room was a small one that the Haruno household kept reserved for one purpose - which explained the hundreds of intricately carved marks and seals that covered the walls ceiling and floor.  
  
This, after all, was the room of the Haruno's Tree.  
  
Or, to be more specific, it was a meditation room designed and enhanced in order to aid in the preparation of the Haruno family secret jutsu. The seals and marks that covered everything were wards of various types that had been placed there to absorb or nullify dangerous jutsu should the technique go out of control.  
  
Quite a few of the older families had rooms like these in their homes. Places in which their children could practice jutsus that the family didn't want practiced in public. The reason for this, of course, was paranoia. To be more specific, it was the fear that another family would copy the jutsu or worse - discover how to counter it.  
  
Haruno's tree.  
  
A tree that soon, within Sakura, would come into bloom.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Ugh." Temari opened her eyes slightly and immediately wished she hadn't done so as the light in the room practically blinded her with it's intensity. Not that the room was in any way bright, it was just that her eyes had grown so accustomed to being closed during her period of recovery that they just weren't used to being open right now.  
  
"Oh." Whispered a quiet voice from somewhere off to the waking ninja's right. "You're awake. uhm."  
  
'Who is that?' Wondered Temari, as she searched her mind for any memory that linked the voice she heard with one of the ninja she knew as being a leaf villager. Whoever it was, she was female - and sounded somewhat shy.  
  
Wait. There was whats-her-name. The one with the funny eyes.  
  
Hikaru? No.  
  
Hinako? No.  
  
Hinata? No- wait. Yes. Yes, that sounded right. She was the one who had fought a relative in the chuunin exam wasn't she?  
  
Temari nodded to herself a few times as she replayed the memory of watching that fight in her head. The image she conjured up in her mind was, literally, identical to the actual event she had watched all that short time ago. Temari, like all Sand-nin, had an almost photographic memory - a trait that had been instilled in her and then trained from a very young age.  
  
"Hi." She began to say, then paused as a sudden pain flared up from her dry throat and lips. Almost immediately a hand slipped under her head and lifted her up slightly as a beaker of some strange sweet-tasting liquid was put to her lips. Taking a sip, Temari was somewhat happy to discover that the liquid was some kind of medicine - one which dulled the pain in her throat as well as helping to remove the awful heavy-headed feeling she had.  
  
. All that and it tasted quite good too.  
  
"Naruto-kun." She heard, the words echoing through her still somewhat dimmed mind. Almost immediately her imagination conjured up an image of the blonde fox-like youth. He stood there, in her mind, with all his pride and confidence wrapped around him like a cloak. This was the Naruto who had defeated Hyuuga Neji and had then gone on to defeat Gaara - the boy previously thought to be unbeatable.  
  
This was Naruto, the strongest genin Temari had ever heard of.  
  
And yet. He wasn't full of himself like most exceptional genin were. In fact, he seemed to go out of his way to try and be friendly - even when he could see that it wasn't working.  
  
What kind of man would Naruto grow into?  
  
What kind of.  
  
What kind of husband could he be?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hinata stared at Temari's face. She sat upon a small yet comfortable stool next to the low bed that the older girl had been laid upon. In her hands she clutched a small wooden beaker of a pale blue liquid - a medicine to dull and sooth throat pains.  
  
It was, in fact, one of her own creations.  
  
"Naruto-kun." She whispered, as a tear formed in the corner of one pale eye. "Why. why does this have to be?"  
  
The Hyuuga child had hoped, from the very depths of her heart and soul, that Naruto would be his usual rebellious self and find a way out of the arranged marriage. After all, since when had Naruto ever let anyone decide his place in life?  
  
Never, that's when.  
  
Yet. He didn't seem to be fighting this arrangement and that particular fact scared Hinata. Naruto had been a central point in her life for, oh, almost as long as she could remember. Every day she woke up for him, every day she studied medicine away from the watchful eyes of her family - so that she could give him aid if he got hurt.  
  
But not once had she ever told him how she felt.  
  
So, in a way it was her own fault that Naruto didn't know how she felt about him. Perhaps she'd expected him to be able to see her feelings, like all the heroes and dashing young men in the many romance novels she had stashed under her futon in her room. It had been stupid of her really, to expect Naruto to know enough about peoples feelings to be able to guess how they felt.  
  
Who could blame him, really? It wasn't like he chose to be raised without anyone to guide him in such matter.  
  
.  
  
Well, okay, so maybe he did run away from the various carers he was handed to when he was much younger. That said, if his foster-families treated him like some kind of crazed demon or something - which was quite a silly notion really - then he would have been bound to run away sooner or later.  
  
Hinata had always wondered why all the adult treated Naruto as dirt. It wasn't as if they had any real reason to hate him - well, no reason that she knew of anyway. Heck, she'd once asked Kiba and Shino why everyone hated the blonde-haired boy and while Kiba had simply laughed and said it was because he was a screw-up, Shino had stated that he had no idea why, only that some kids hated him simply because their parents did.  
  
Sighing to herself, Hinata slipped off of the stool and rose to her feet. It had been almost an hour since she had offered to keep an eye on the unconscious girl. Still, she had spoken - or attempted to - and taken a small drink of medicine before slipping back so it was quite obvious that her condition was improving.  
  
Besides, someone else had already arrived to take over the task of watching Temari sleep.  
  
As the Hyuuga child walked silently out of the room, her eyes met with the person who had come to replace her. For a brief moment she felt a warm feeling in her chest - one she knew well.  
  
She ignored it as she brushed past and out through the door.  
  
It was, quite possibly, the hardest thing she'd ever done.  
  
Hyuuga Hinata had, for now, given up on Naruto.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Would he be the sort to make her sit at home while he went out and did all the work?  
  
No. no. That didn't seem like the sort of thing Naruto would do. Granted he would need someone to look after him - but only in the sense of reminding him to do things he often forgot or to do things the poor boy had no idea about. Like shopping. And proper cooking.  
  
Hmm. Better not forget dressing himself in good clothes for fancy occasions.  
  
Heck, did Naruto even have any good clothes? For that matter, did he have any other clothes at all? The only thing Temari had ever seen him wear was that somewhat grubby orange jumpsuit that he favored.  
  
As her mind bounced from one thought to another in a seemingly random pattern, some tiny little voice - the cynical side of her - decided to put in it's views.  
  
'What the hell are you doing!?' It screeched, which was a particularly difficult thing to do for something that existed only as an imaginary representative of Temari's upper consciousness.  
  
'Thinking about the future. That's all.' Replied the still somewhat fuzzy core of Temari's personality - the part she usually hid from contact with the outside world.  
  
'With a guy? With a younger guy? Need I remind you that he's at least two years younger than you!?' Yelled her pessimistic cynicism. 'Besides, who would want some crazy psycho girl like you anyway!?'  
  
The sensitive part of Temari stayed silent. After all, it couldn't really argue with the truth now, could it? She was a crazy psycho girl.  
  
A useless, crazy, psycho girl.  
  
A useless, crazy, psycho girl that her home village didn't even want around.  
  
"Temari?" Came a voice, a soft one that made her hidden side swell slightly. She knew that voice and, though layers upon layers of cynicism, pessimism, angst and anger were in the way it was still a voice that somehow reached to her center.  
  
That was because.  
  
"Temari, please wake up." it asked. That was all, no more, no less.  
  
Because.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto was staring. He knew he was staring, he knew how rude it was for him to be staring.  
  
Heck, he knew it was ruder still for him to be staring at a girl, in bed, wearing nothing more than a thin medical tunic.  
  
And yet, he wasn't staring at her chest. Nor was he staring at her legs or any other part o her body for that matter. For, you see, Naruto was staring at her face - waiting for some sign that the girl would be waking up. Properly waking up that is, not just a brief moment of consciousness which would quickly fade away as had happened many times previously.  
  
Who was this girl to him anyway?  
  
If he wanted to look at technicalities, she was his fiancee forever.  
  
Well, okay, maybe not forever. Until they were married or one of them died anyway.  
  
Married.  
  
Ma-rri-ed.  
  
Naruto blinked a few times as he racked his brain in thought.  
  
What, exactly, was marriage anyway? He knew it was when a guy and a girl decided to live together and have kids and be a family.  
  
Yeah. A family.  
  
That was something Naruto didn't really know all that much about - families that is. After all, he'd only ever looked at them from the outside, never knowing what it was like to actually be in one. Now, here he was, eventually going to start one of his own. Granted, it wasn't by his choice exactly. but. well. he did wonder what it would be like.  
  
The young fox-like ninja had always dreamed of going out with his number one crush, Haruno Sakura. Beyond that, however, he'd never really thought about it. Being boyfriend and girlfriend was one thing, being husband and wife - no matter who the wife was - sounded. well. scary.  
  
Scary, but at the same time so desirable. A family was something Naruto had, in many ways, craved all his life. Perhaps it was the lack of a family who cared for him that first set him onto his path in life - his will to become acknowledged by everybody.  
  
After all, most children were acknowledged by, at the very least, their families.  
  
Naruto never had this final buffer between being acknowledged and being hated.  
  
"What would it be like?" He murmured as tears started to trickle down his cheeks.  
  
The blonde-haired boy stood up and glanced at the sand-haired girl on the bed. "What would it be like?" He asked, somewhat louder, "To be with someone like you for all my life? Someone. someone who I'm only going to be with because I've been told to be with you."  
  
"What would it be like. To have a family?"  
  
He grit his teeth slightly and stalked out of the room, passing Iruka on the way out of the small medical-nin complex. Iruka, who knew that it had been Naruto's turn to watch Temari started to stop the younger boy but, as he saw the look on Naruto's face, paused and let him pass without comment. Instead, the Chuunin instructor made his way to the room Temari was in.  
  
Just in time to see her sit up in bed, completely awake.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Sakura stood staring ahead, her hands fiddling with the small zipper that was used to keep her dress closed. After a few moments the red and white material fell into a small pool around her feet, a pool which Sakura slowly stepped out of and gently kicked to a far corner of the room. After all, it was a relatively old dress - one that she would care about if it got accidentally ripped, shredded, crushed, soaked, incinerated or dissolved.  
  
All things which, given what she was doing, were distinct possibilities.  
  
The pink-haired genin shivered slightly as the cool air washed against her skin - the parts that weren't covered by almost skintight black shorts and halter-top. Along her arms and down the small of her back - upon the area of skin that was uncovered by her remaining clothes - were inscribed the weaving and undulating tattoos that made up well over half of the technique.  
  
Tattoo-based Jutsu, whilst being much more complicated than a regular Jutsu, were much desired by many families. Mostly because of the fact that no matter what skills or bloodline abilities another ninja may have, it would be impossible to perform the Jutsu unless they had the correct seals and symbols tattooed permanently into their skin with special inks. As an added bonus, certain inks could be made to fade away without a trace should the bearer of the tattoos die - thus preventing anyone from copying the patterns after killing the user of them.  
  
As Sakura stretched her arms out to her sides and slightly upwards, forming a shallow 'Y' shape with her body, the marks upon her flesh began to writhe about slightly like tree branches swaying in a gentle summer breeze.  
  
What was actually happening was that Sakura was pushing a little chakra into the skin where the marks were in order to activate them. Suddenly her arms snapped down and around to being her hands together in front of her chest and her elbows against her sides. Her fingers burst into motion, forming all of the required six hand seals in less time than it took her to even name the technique she was going to use.  
  
Of course, this was only part of the technique, the next step would be harder, and more tiring too as she intended to use almost her maximum amount of chakra. Then again, that was more or less one of the reasons this technique had been created in the first place.  
  
"Hananoki no tenju." She whispered, using her voice to focus herself as she guided the chakra within her into the form it needed to be in for the technique to work. Her hands blurred again, this time performing totally different seals, lots of them too, almost twenty-three in total. This time, however, Sakura took her time in making sure that each seal was done perfectly. After all, right now time was not a concern that she needed to pay attention to.  
  
Finally, the female genin tagged a series of three quick seals onto the end of those she had just completed and blasted her chakra out and around the pathways her hand-seals had created.  
  
"Hosoku!"  
  
As she screamed out the phrase which, in this case, was mostly there as a reminder as to what she was trying to do with her chakra as well as yet another focusing aid in order to help her with the final stage of this part of the technique.  
  
She felt the energy get pulled out of her with a sensation that felt like, for lack of any other description, being pulled through wet mud.  
  
And then.  
  
Then.  
  
There was silence.  
  
Sakura looked around, her face and skin covered with tiny beads of perspiration due to the effort she'd put into the technique. She took deep breaths, well aware of the horrible empty tired feeling that signaled an incredibly low amount of stamina left to her.  
  
"Did i. succeed?" She asked the empty air, moments before her incredibly exhausted body decided that enough was enough and gave up on trying to support her, instead letting her collapse, boneless, onto the carved wooden floor of the room.  
  
"I. I did it." She mumbled, as her eyes closed and she fell into a light snooze which quickly became the deep slumber her body demanded in order for it to get it's energy back.  
  
Within the room nothing had changed.  
  
Everything was as it had been before.  
  
Except.  
  
Except for a single tiny little change upon the tattoo that covered Sakura's back.  
  
For one of the lines that represented branches was, apparently, in flower.  
  
Or at least, that was how it appeared.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Iruka sighed as he watched Temari's face move through a variety of emotions. The chuunin was pretty sure that the only reason that Temari was even showing these emotions was simply because she was still somewhat groggy from waking up.  
  
First had been a look of, well. anticipation would have been a good way of describing it. The sandy-haired girl's eyes had been wide, and her mouth slightly open - as if she had been prepared to say something because she was expecting to see something.  
  
'Or someone' thought Iruka, who was carefully heeping his own emotions - mostly irritation at Naruto - in check.  
  
Next had come confusion as Temari had realized that the person she had been expecting wasn't present. This had quickly become a look of mild annoyance, then serious irritation before finally changing to the haughty and aloof 'I don't give a damn' look she was wearing upon her features now.  
  
"I see you're awake at last." He ventured, then steeled himself against the glare Temari shot in his direction. Obviously she was quite unhappy that the person she had expected to see wasn't there. 'Damn it Naruto', he though silently, 'When I find you I will personally kill you!'  
  
The Female ninja stared at Iruka for a few moments longer before she looked away and spoke in quiet tones. "Naruto was here. Wasn't he?" She asked, "I heard him as I was waking up."  
  
"That boy." Grated out Iruka, "Left just as I came in - which was just as you were sitting up."  
  
"Oh." Temari seemed slightly downcast. It was nothing very obvious, but there seemed to be a slightly disappointed tone in her voice. This mood, however, didn't last long as it was quickly replaced with an almost icy demeanor before Iruka even had a chance to register that Temari had sounded depressed. "Well. That's fine then. It's not like I would want someone like him in the same room as me - Especially if I was out cold at the time!"  
  
"Is that so?" Iruka sighed to himself as he felt a fresh wave of irritation well up in him. Granted, Naruto was a complete and utter idiot - one that wouldn't be getting any ramen tonight - but Iruka was fairly sure that he wasn't the pervert Temari sounded like she was accusing him of being.  
  
. Then again, he had been training with Jiraiya - the legendary lecher.  
  
And, hell, he had Kakashi as his sensei. Iruka knew too damn well what Kakashi considered appropriate reading material and, in that respect, he was as bad as Jiraiya.  
  
Who knew what sort of notions could have rubbed off on Naruto?  
  
Ugh. It just didn't bear thinking about really. Still, Iruka had an obligation to Naruto, one that probably involved defending him from false accusations.  
  
At least, he hoped that they were false.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The boy in question, Naruto, was hiding. Not in a ninja sense either, he was hiding because he didn't want anyone to see how bad he looked - and felt. At present his hiding spot was simply a large tree with an interesting hollow part way up it's trunk. It was within this hollow that Naruto sat, curled into a ball, and cried.  
  
Family.  
  
It may have been Naruto's dream to become Hokage, but that was merely a means to an end. What the boy really dreamed of was being accepted - as Hokage the entire village would be forced to accept him, whether they liked it or not.  
  
Mothers, fathers, children.  
  
There were so many things he would do when he became Hokage, he'd try and make peace with the sand and, by extension, Gaara. After all, Gaara was like him, only it was a him who had never had an Iruka around to accept him. Sometimes Naruto thought about what things would be like if Iruka had not been there for him. Those dreams usually had him waking up in the middle of the night covered in a cold sweat.  
  
He watched them sometimes, as they played together in fields or went out for meals together.  
  
Changing the Hyuuga was also near the top of his list of priorities. Granted he wasn't too sure exactly how he would change them but getting rid of that creepy bird-in-a-cage seal would be a start. Of course, he would have to learn how to undo it himself, or at least grow strong enough to force the strongest member of the Hyuuga clan to undo them all.  
  
Brothers and sisters argued with each other about who would play what, whilst their parents sat nearby either having a moment together or playing with children too young to play with the others.  
  
Then maybe he would go visit the wave country, to see how everyone there was getting on. Perhaps he'd even take gifts with him for everyone he had met there. Of course, he'd also offer them a special contract with the Leaf, one that would make sure that the Great Naruto Bridge, wave countries lifeline, would always be theirs no matter who tried to take or destroy it.  
  
A father would teach his son a jutsu that the son would someday teach to his son or daughter. A mother would step aside to let one of her children perhaps help cut vegetables for the night's meal. They'd smile and laugh and love each other.  
  
Most of all, he would be accepted by the village.  
  
Love each other, accept each other.  
  
He would show them.  
  
He wanted to be like them.  
  
He pulled himself into a tighter ball.  
  
He buried his face against his knees.  
  
He cried and cried and cried.  
  
After all, Uzumaki Naruto felt, right now, ever so alone.  
  
And when Naruto felt like this, there was only one place he could go.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"He's. fragile." Temari stayed silent as Iruka spoke in a slow voice that occasionally paused as he thought about how to phrase his words.  
  
"Granted, Naruto always seems to be so full of energy and strong but inside. There are emotional scars that I don't think will ever heal." Iruka leaned back on the stool he sat upon and stared at the ceiling. "He's always been lonely because everyone has shunned him, even me at first. Of course, since I had been ordered to look after him I began to see him as something other than the boy the village shunned."  
  
"Why?" Asked Temari, her voice quiet. "Why did the entire villiage hate him so?"  
  
Iruka merely snorted and turned his head to look at her. "Can't say. Well. More like I won't say. Not to you or anyone else who doesn't know." He sighed and turned back to stare at the ceiling. "Either way, it's something bad and, well, if Naruto wants to tell you what it is then fine, but I'm not going to ruin his privacy by spilling his secrets."  
  
"The chuunin exam." Came a quick response, one that caused Iruka to swing himself upright. "The power he had when he fought the Hyuuga boy."  
  
Iruka glanced at her, then at the floor. "I heard about what happened then and, well, that's part of it but not the whole story - so don't go jumping to conclusions just yet."  
  
"The worst part of it is," Continued the older man, "That Naruto himself didn't even know this secret, the reason why everyone hated him, until he was told by someone who was a traitor to the village."  
  
'Yes, Mizuki,' he thought, 'If it wasn't for you, Naruto would have never known about the demon within him. Then again. if he didn't know, would he have become as strong as he is now?'  
  
"So," Whispered the bed-ridden kunoichi, "he was hated, and didn't even know why?" 'Just like Gaara, at first anyway,' she added within her mind.  
  
"That's pretty much it, yes. Although. I accepted him. I didn't know he was listening at the time, I was too busy trying not to die of blood loss." Iruka let out a short barking laugh at that memory - especially the look on Mizuki's face before he was pummeled by thousands of Naruto-clones. "Either way, he heard that I accepted him. That I was the first person who didn't hate him."  
  
'Whilst we were always afraid of Gaara - we always saw the monster, not the person it was in.' Thought Temari. 'Maybe that was one of the things that made him so unstable. Then there is Gaara's change of personality. after fighting Naruto. Maybe he learnt what Naruto had learnt then.'  
  
"Naruto affects everyone." Iruka said, as Temari suddenly realized that she had voiced her thoughts out loud. "But no-one seems to realize that everyone affect him too."  
  
"Iruka-san." Began the sandy-haired girl, "I. I want to talk with Naruto." She stared at the sheets of her bed with fierce concentration.  
  
The chuunin blinked and shrugged. "Well, there could be a little problem with that actually." Shrugging again he pulled himself up off the stool and glanced at Temari. "I think I know where he's headed, but he'll probably want to be alone for a while first."  
  
The chuunin walked slowly to the door and paused to look back for a moment. "I'll be back a little before sunset, be ready by then and I'll take you to where he probably is."  
  
Temari, sitting in her bed, just nodded.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
As sense came back to her, the heir to the Haruno family technique giggled. It worked! It worked! It must have worked! After all, nothing had happened - which mean that her jutsu had worked!  
  
Wait. That didn't make sense. Aw. Who cared! It had worked!  
  
Finally she had a move which would make Sasuke jealous at her skill! Especially since, due to the fact that many of the seals were tattooed onto her body, he had no hope of ever being able to copy it!  
  
Now. if only she could stand up.  
  
Careful, careful. move one arm under herself and then push!  
  
On shaky feet, Sakura managed to get herself into a standing position before staggering towards the door of the room. The movement, painful as it was, bought life back into her still somewhat tired limbs and by the time she reached the door, she felt better. Not in tip-top condition, just better.  
  
Pulling the door open she staggered out of the room, barely noticing the presence of her mother and grandmother - along with her father, which was unusual as he was usually the one off on missions. Nodding at their words of congratulations, Sakura wove past them and grabbed a dress that her mother held out to her. Even in her weird state, Sakura's body knew instinctively how to put on that style of dress and in moments she was wearing her usual red outfit over her black underclothes.  
  
" 'm... goin' out f'r air." She mumbled in the general direction of her family, who responded with nods of agreement. A few unsteady steps later she was fumbling with the front door handle. Gritting her teeth in semi- frustration she tugged hard and was quite happy to hear the click that signaled the unlatching of the door.  
  
Sliding it open the pink-haired girl stepped out into the cool late- afternoon air. A quick glance at the sky told her that it was approaching sunset, nothing particularly important but - Her train of thought was suddenly thrown off course like a boat striking a rock.  
  
Being knocked flying by a crying, running Naruto had that effect on people.  
  
"N-naruto?" Sakura stared in disbelief at the diminishing figure of Naruto as he continued, heedless, on his mad run. Now, in Sakura's mind there were two things that were very, very wrong - and neither of them was Naruto's dress sense.  
  
Firstly, Naruto hadn't even noticed her. He always noticed her! Every time he saw her it was 'Hello Sakura-chan!' or 'Oi! Oi! Watch this Sakura- chan!'. Whilst she wasn't particularly happy about the continued attention from the weird boy, she had admitted to herself that she would miss it if Naruto ever left. After all, it wasn't much but it was still proof that at least someone found her attractive.  
  
Secondly, the scruffy genin had been crying. Specifically he had been crying and appearing to be upset. Very upset. More upset than that one time when Kakashi had snagged and eaten Naruto's ramen by mistake, or so he had claimed. Normally Naruto was bouncy, hyper and generally the complete opposite of how he had looked so. what was wrong with him?  
  
Sakura didn't like Naruto. She thought he was loud, annoying and had a dress sense worse than Ino-pig's. But still. she was somewhat worried about him. After all, he was her team-mate.  
  
"Wait up!" She yelled after the retreating orange figure before half staggering, half running in the direction he had gone, hoping that Naruto wasn't going to do something stupid.  
  
Well. stupider than usual at least.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto's path wound around the village almost randomly. Occasionally he would stop, then double back and duck into a turning he had passed by previously. Sometimes he would run around a building before heading off in a completely different direction once he completed a circuit of it.  
  
He knew Sakura was following him, which was why he was doing all these ridiculous things in an effort to throw her off track. After all, where he was heading was so secret that no-one knew what he kept there.  
  
Okay, so it was inside his own home - but that didn't diminish the secrecy of the room at all. Normally he kept it locked and had the key hidden so well that no-one would ever find it. In fact, that was another reason that he had been hiding in a tree earlier - after all, no-one would expect the key to have been hidden so far away from the lock it opened, right?  
  
Choosing to enter his home by the alternative route, Naruto gathered chakra in his feet and leapt. His jump ended somewhat messily on the roof of his home, just a short distance away from the skylight that opened above the upstairs hallway. Slipping his fingers under the rim of the skylight, Naruto felt around until he heard a slight click - the sound of the skylights latch springing open - and pulled the giant glass panel out of his way. Glancing around beforehand, he hopped down through the open skylight and landed on all fours in the hallway.  
  
". It's nor fair." He mumbled, reaching out with key in hand to unlock the single locked room in the building. As he slipped inside, he reached up and flicked on a light switch to illuminate the room. "It's just not fair."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Temari, you ready to-woah!" Iruka yelled in surprise as a strong feminine hand dragged him into Temari's hospital room. Specifically, the hand belonged to a rather antsy-looking female genin who technically should have still been in bed in this very room.  
  
"Where is he?" She asked, her voice low, as Iruka pulled away from her grip. "You said you'd show me where he is."  
  
"Aha, I will! I will!" Iruka waved his hands and laughed somewhat nervously. Granted, he had more combat ability in one arm than a genin like Temari had in her entire body but. well. Iruka knew when it was a bad time to provoke anything. Being face-to-face with an angry female, he had learnt long ago, was always a bad time.  
  
"Then lead on." Growled the younger girl, who was still feeling the aftereffects of several of the medicines that had been pumped into her whilst she had been unconscious. As a result she was forced to place one hand on Iruka's shoulder for support as the two of them ran and leapt out of the hospital and through the village towards Naruto's home.  
  
Temari was slightly puzzled about their destination, but she wisely kept silent, assuming that Iruka at least knew what he was talking about.  
  
"We'll have to be quiet." Iruka warned as the alighted outside the front door. "If Naruto hears us coming he'll probably lock himself in, it may not seem much, but the room he'll be in is a warded room - so I doubt even a Jounin would be able to break in without difficulty."  
  
As the two begun to open the door, a pink head of hair popped into Iruka's field of vision. "Iruka-sensei. Has something happened to Naruto?" At last haruno Sakura had managed to track Naruto down. Not that she was worried. No. Nope. She was just. interested. That was all.  
  
The chuunin instructor recoiled away from the Haruno girl, upon his face a look of surprise. Glancing around in an effort to find some sort of excuse, he realized something important.  
  
Temari had gone inside.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto sat there, cross legged, upon the floor. In his hands he held a small wooden figure whilst all around him were strewn various odd little things - wooden toys, tiny hand-knitted clothes, even a small painted cot.  
  
To either side of him, covering the walls of the room were shelves and cabinets filled with a vast variety of trinkets.  
  
"I know you're there." He muttered, "The floorboards shake whenever anyone walks outside this room." Carefully he placed the figure - a carving of a man in robes and lacquer helm - down upon one of the lower shelves nearby.  
  
"Naruto." The speaker stepped into the room, her voice quiet. Before she could say anything else, Naruto cut her off with a whispered command.  
  
"Shut the door." He stated, "I. I don't want anyone else to know about this room. Iruka-sensei knows about it, so I guess he told you about it, huh?"  
  
"Well, he did say he was going to lead me to you." Replied Temari as she sauntered over and, after moving a few tiny shinobi figures out of the way, sat down next to Naruto. "What. is this room?" She asked, looking around with curiosity.  
  
The short blonde-haired boy bowed his head and sniffled slightly. "Memories. memories I was never able to have." He replied, his voice low and choked. "Everything in here is. is something from my parents - toys they made for me, clothes my mother supposedly knitted. Things. things from a family I wasn't allowed to be a part of."  
  
Temari cocked her head to one side and looked around, her eyes eventually landing on a tiny - rather blurred - picture of a young man and woman. Underneath was some writing, which was burnt or water-soaked like the image. In fact, only two words could be made out 'Uzumaki family'.  
  
"My parents. I think. I like to believe they are anyway." Whispered Naruto, who was looking over he shoulder at the picture. "No-one's ever told me what they were like, and Iruka-sensei says he was too young to remember most of the people he met back when they were alive."  
  
Sitting back down the young boy stared at various things around the room. "I. sometimes I imagine, about what it would be like if they were alive. a- about." He sniffed, tears running freely down his face, "a-about wh-what it would be like to ha-have had a-a. a family!"  
  
Naruto would have collapsed in on himself if it wasn't for the arms that wrapped around him. Without thinking her turned and buried his face into Temari's shoulder, his tears soaking into her jacket like raindrops onto cloth.  
  
"Shhhh.." One of Temari's hands reached up and, although she had never expected to ever find herself doing this, she gently stroked Naturo's hair. "It's okay."  
  
"N-no it's not!" Came the muffled voice of Naruto, "Wh-why did I nu-never get a chance!?" His arms wrapped around her waist, like a drowning man clinging to a life-belt. "Why did I have to live wi-without any fu-family! D-Didn't they care about me?"  
  
"It's okay." Repeated the older girl, "Let them out, let your tears out." She held the boy close as she continued to whisper reassuring little phrases to him. She looked so confident and knowing when, in reality, she had no clue whatsoever as to what she was doing. But hey, it worked in the theater right? Besides it looked like Naruto really did need to let this out, after all, who knew how long he'd been sitting on this growing depression which he hid under his crazy grin.  
  
Temari didn't know much about psychology, but she did know that bottling all of your feelings up was something that eventually led to self- destruction. Idly she wondered how she was going to stop Naruto's tears because, frankly, her shoulder was getting soaked.  
  
Well. there was that one way which also worked in the theater.  
  
She would probably have had to do it at some point anyway.  
  
Besides, Naruto was quite good looking for a younger boy.  
  
And he really did seem like he could need it.  
  
"Naruto." She whispered, slipping one hand between them and pushing the shorter boy away from her slightly. Inwardly she steeled herself as Naruto looked up at her with a tear-stained face.  
  
"Yu-you." he began, but was cut off by a sudden warm sensation as Temari darted forwards, pressing her lips to his in a kiss. The male genin's eyes widened and his breath caught as his mind tried to process exactly what was happening.  
  
Temari, on the other hand, was mentally recoiling from the kiss.  
  
But then, there was just that one tiny part of her.  
  
That little voice in the back of her skull.  
  
The one telling her about the kiss.  
  
Telling her. that she liked it.  
  
Very much.  
  
Chapter 9 - Ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes -  
  
WHOOO HOOO! Look! It's early! Early I say!  
  
Well, no, it took ages - but considering that I didn't expect to be able to upload this until December, well, it's damn early!  
  
So, this is an extra special extended length chapter - to make up for the pitifully small chapter 8 (As well as the wait). Granted there isn't much action, but I'm hoping that the end of this chapter made you all go 'awwwwwwww'  
  
. and I can suddenly sense the OOC flames looming in the distance x.x Temari, being nice to Naruto? Well. He has been nice to her, so it's only likely that she can be nice back.  
  
(poor, poor Naruto)  
  
Sooo. quick status report on my writing in general - 'To Be Strong' I gonna be completely re-written, so that'll be going down then coming back sooner or later. Also, I have another fic that I've recently begun which (as a working title) is called 'Getting to know you' so you may see that show up here eventually.  
  
Aaanyway. My fingers are tired from all this writing, so I'm gonna go get some rest.  
  
See ya next chapter ^.^  
  
Lackey H - wishing he was the one being kissed by Temari there.  
  
Translations (which are probably wrong, but dammit I hope they're correct) - 'hananoki no tenju' - 'flowering tree's natural gifts' 'hosoko' - 'Capture / seizure' 


	10. Goals

Betrothal A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 10 - Goals  
  
They stayed there for several moments, frozen like two statues hidden away in some tidy little corner of a museum. No-one saw them, no-one heard them, no-one knew of their kiss.  
  
Naruto stared, wide eyed, into the dark slate grey eyes of the girl that was now pulling away from him. He could still feel the almost electric tingle on his lips where they had touched Temari's. Granted, it was quite a pathetic thing as kisses went - it was just a step or two above a quick peck on the lips.  
  
Still. wow. Just. wow.  
  
This had been Naruto's first kiss. Well, first kiss with a girl anyway - not that he believed that on little accident with Sasuke counted because it had never been intentional, but still.  
  
Temari smiled at him slightly, barely a slight twitching at the corners of her mouth. Then, with all the grace of a collapsing tree, she pitched forward and fainted into Naruto's arms.  
  
The young male genin, of course, blinked a few times in confusion before turning the older girl around and lifting up one eyelid. All ninja knew that the eye was perhaps the only thing that could give away almost any attempt at feigning unconsciousness.  
  
According to Temari's eye, she was either very, very good or she was actually unconscious.  
  
Fortunately, Naruto knew exactly what to do in such a situation. Pulling himself to his feet, he squatted down and slid his hands under Temari. Then, with a grunt of effort he lifted the larger girl into the air and quickly kicked the door open before scooting though it - being careful not to knock temari's head against the doorframe.  
  
"Iruka-sensei!" He yelled, "Kakashi-senseeei!" he added, also in a yell. "Sakura-chaaaan! Someone! Help!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Iruka, who had reacted the moment he had seen the unconscious Temari, sat in the small hospital room with Naruto. The room was like any hospital room, white, white and more white any sort of color was obviously discouraged here, and Naruto kept getting the occasional disapproving stare over the color of his outfit.  
  
"You see Naruto, apparently she was being treated with some particularly strong medicines." Explained Iruka, "It was like she was really drunk, so it's no wonder that she collapsed just like she did. Of course, if they had told me she was on those medicines I wouldn't have let her out."  
  
"Oh." Naruto stared at the floor between his feet. Granted, it was nice that Temari hadn't fainted for any particularly serious reason but. Well. He knew what 'drunk' meant. Sort of. It meant that people did what they wouldn't do normally.  
  
And Temari had kissed him.  
  
Whilst being the medicinal equivalent of 'drunk'.  
  
Which meant that, if she were normal, she would have never kissed him. Ever.  
  
Iruka peered over at his ex-student and frowned slightly. "You look down, did something happen?" He asked, not expecting violent reaction.  
  
"No! NO! Nothing happened!" Naruto yelled, jumping up from his seat hard enough to send the cheap plastic chair flying back behind him. "Nothing at all!" He half-screamed, before spinning on the spot and launching himself into a full-tilt dash past several surprised trainee medical-nin.  
  
"Ah. I see something did happen then." Murmured the chuunin as he watched Naruto's escape.  
  
"Yeah, and quite amusing it was to watch too." Came a slightly muffled voice, causing Iruka to spin in his seat to look at the speaker.  
  
"And just why are you here Kakashi? Spying on me again?" He demanded, glaring at the mask-covered face of the famous copy-ninja. The aforementioned jounin smiled - or at least it looked like he was smiling under his mask. His one visible eye was in a little happy curve, so he probably was smiling at least.  
  
"Awww. come now, you know I don't do that anymore." He paused and thought for a moment, "It was only to keep in practice anyway."  
  
"You spied on me while I was in the shower!" Iruka hissed, glancing around to make sure no-one heard. "That sounds like more than 'keeping in practice' to me!"  
  
"I don't know why you're making such a fuss of it Iruka, I did do the same thing to Anko-san as well you know." Kakashi grinned under his mask. "I would have peeped in on Yuuhi-san as well, but you know how angry she got when she last caught me peeping."  
  
"Oh yes," Grumbled the chuunin, "I heard that you almost ended up somewhat less of a man due to that. Heh. She always was a crack shot with a kunai - even when she was a genin."  
  
"Jealous Iruka?" Asked the grey-haired man. "You are the only one from your year who didn't pass the jounin exam."  
  
The scarred man twitched in his seat, as if uncomfortable, for a short while. "A little I guess. Yuuhi was the youngest in our year and she still made it through. Some of the other guys still make it a point to drive home their rank whenever we see each other." Lifting his head, Iruka stared at the ceiling, "I suppose I could take it again, but there's so much work to do with the current academy class, I just don't have the time."  
  
Kakashi, however, grinned.  
  
It wasn't a particularly nice grin either, in fact, the sheer aura of meanness that the grin radiated was enough to be felt by Iruka.  
  
"Well now, I think I have a little proposition for you then." He began.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto sat in his favorite spot at one of the many ramen stands that he frequented. This one was little more than a wooden cart with a pull-out covering and a few small chairs and tables set out in front of it. Naruto's favorite spot, needless to say, was on one of the chairs that was mounted on the side of the cart - up against the counter itself.  
  
"Beef Ramen please," He muttered, "A small one. I don't feel too hungry." This simple statement caused both the cart owner and his asistant to freeze in their tracks and stare, incredulously, at Naruto. After all, for as long as they had known him, he'd never ordered anything other than the deluxe super-large size bowls of ramen.  
  
"Ah. you sure kid?" Prompted the owner, "Only, that ain't your usual size."  
  
"I'm sure." Replied Naruto as he slumped over the counter, his voice sounding low and depressed. At the other end of the counter a blond head perked up as it's owner recognized the depressive voice.  
  
"Well, if you say so kid. Can't argue with our best customer! Ahaha!" The Owner laughed for a moment before turning around to prepare Naruto's order.  
  
The blonde scooted a few seats closer to Naruto, dragging her medium-sized bowel of ramen along as she did so. "Sooooo.." She began, turning to glance at him out of the corner of her eyes, her one long bang that hung in front of her face bouncing around as she moved. "What's made you depressed, the number one hyper ninja?"  
  
Ino had never talked to Naruto before. Heck, she'd never really looked at him before the chuunin exam. Now, however, he had information she wanted, making it a necessity to speak to him. Naturally, the best way to guide him into revealing what she wanted to know was to begin with small talk - then a few subtle prompts and. well. hopefully he wouldn't even notice he'd just been interrogated.  
  
Naruto glanced at the blond-haired member of team ten. "What do you want Ino?" He asked, sounding somewhat sulky. "If you want to know where Sasuke is, I have no idea."  
  
Sasuke. Sasuke. Did everyone think her life revolved around the last Uchiha? Well. Okay, so maybe it did, but that still wasn't reason for everyone to immediately assume that whatever she asked was going to be about Sasuke!  
  
Even if he was such a hunk.  
  
With such beautiful, yet sometimes scary, eyes. Like pearls.  
  
Pearls? No, that was wrong, pearls were white - Sasuke's eyes were red.  
  
Like. rubies. Or blood. Roses maybe.  
  
"I wasn't going to ask about Sasuke." Ino replied, a faint blush coming to her cheeks from all those thoughts about Sasuke - and pearls for some reason.  
  
"Oh. Well. That's. different I guess." Mumbled the blonde-haired boy. "All the girls ever talk about is Sasuke this, Sasuke that." He frowned, staring at the waxed wood of the cart's counter. "While I'm just the fall guy." A small bowl of ramen suddenly filled his view and Naruto looked up even as he grabbed the wooden chopsticks that had been supplied with it. "Thanks," He murmured to the owner.  
  
"Huh?" Ino glared at Naruto for a moment before shrugging to herself. "Well, he is much prettier than you are, and better behaved, and smarter." Ino would have continued had Naruto not cut her off.  
  
"He's also a cold-hearted jerk, he's weaker than I am yet won't admit anyone could possibly be better than he is, he never lets anyone get close to him and yet he gets all the damn attention!" Naruto slammed one fist on the table, causing his bowl to jump and splash a little ramen onto the counter. "And. and. and I get an arranged marriage to someone because the village doesn't care if she turns out to be a spy or an assassin and I get killed because of it!"  
  
Ino backed away at Naruto's anger. For a moment there, she could have sworn that his eyes looked almost. demonic. No, no. There they were, his usual - albeit angry - blue eyes. Still. if that was how he felt then he did have a reason to be angry. "So, no-one cares about you?" She asked, fishing for the one piece of information she wanted.  
  
"Iruka-sensei does." Came the reply, "Why the hell am I telling you this anyway? It's not like you care."  
  
Frowning Ino sighed to herself. Perhaps Naruto wasn't as dumb as she still thought he was. Well, she could tell him why right now. or she could give him some evasive answer or even an outright lie. No. No. An evasive answer would be best, one she could twist into a question even. "What would you do," She began, "If you found out that there was a girl in the village who liked you? Maybe even had a crush on you?"  
  
"Quit it." Naruto half-snarled, "I'm not in the mood to be teased." Then he looked down at his reflection in the watery parts of his meal. "Besides, it wouldn't matter if anyone did like me - I'm engaged, remember? I'm pretty sure we told you about it."  
  
"And. you're not going to fight it? You'd fight anything else." Prompted the blonde-haired girl. "After all, you're the guy who never gives up, right?"  
  
"Because." Naruto gulped and closed his eyes. "Because I don't want to fight it." Opening his eyes again he glanced at Ino. "I don't know why I'm telling you this. because I have to tell someone I guess - I feel like I'll explode if I don't. but. I like Temari."  
  
There was a pause as Ino stared at the boy she was talking to. "What?" She asked, her voice sounding more than a little shocked.  
  
"I like Temari." Naruto stated once more. "There. I said it. I like her."  
  
Ino just continued to stare. "I don't believe you." She muttered, "Then again. you are the number one surprising ninja, aren't you?" With that, she slapped a few small notes and coins down to pay for her meal and hopped off of her chair. "Well," she stated, keeping her gaze off of his face. "Have a good day, I guess."  
  
". Yeah. A good day." Snorted Naruto as she left. "Well, I guess there's still enough time left for something good to happen today."  
  
Smiling to himself Naruto looked up from his bowl of Ramen. "Oi!" He yelled, "One super large Prawn ramen and one medium prawn to go!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"That." Began Iruka, "Is the most evil, depraved and torturous idea I have ever heard."  
  
"Isn't it just?" Replied Kakashi as the two of them imagined the scenes of chaos such an idea would cause. "And it would give you free time to train and. well. You know what's coming up. Six weeks after the Chuunin exam, just like it is every year."  
  
His chuunin companion nodded somberly. "The jounin exam." He muttered. "I'd almost forgotten how much I had wanted to become a jounin when I was a kid."  
  
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()() ()()()()()()()()()()()()()  
  
Iruka sat and glared at the crummy old man that everyone called the Third Hokage. His arms were cross and the scar across his nose was still somewhat dark - it had been almost a year since he had received it now and yet it still hadn't gotten lighter like the medical-nin had said it would. After a while they had begun asking if he wanted them to remove - or at least hide - the scar with their techniques.  
  
Naturally he had told them to bugger off. The scar, he said, was his way of remembering the parents who had died in preventing him from getting any worse when the Kyuubi had attacked the village a year ago.  
  
"Back again Iruka?" The Third asked, peering down his long nose at the scruffy black-haired boy before him. "What for this time? Let me just see here." The Third glanced down at his desk and began to shuffle a few papers around to find the exact report he had received from Iruka's sensei.  
  
"I smoked out the academy." The boy muttered, moments before the Hokage found the report in his stack of papers. "I dumped wet hay in the basement and set fire to it, got the whole place evacuated."  
  
"I. see." Sighing to himself, the older man placed the report back down on his desk and looked at Iruka. "Was there any particular reason that you decided to do such a." He was going to say 'amusing' but really, he had an image to keep, ". dreadful thing?"  
  
"Makino-sensei said that I'd never be able to become a jounin, ever." Grumbled the sulking genin that was the young Iruka.  
  
"So, you believed that filling the academy with smoke was a suitable response then?" Asked the leader of the village.  
  
"She can't tell me that I can't become a jounin." Iruka glared at the Hokage with tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "I heard my parents talking about how proud they would be if I became a jounin - I heard them before. before." His voice cracked and he dropped his head, tears streaming from his eyes. "Before. before they were killed. I. I want to be what they wanted me to be, I want them to be proud of me!"  
  
"Iruka," Began the Third, "I know what your parents were like. They would be proud of you no matter what you became - jounin, ANBU, instructor, medic. they would be proud, simply because you're their son." He smiled, a small crooked smile on a face with enough wrinkles to put a prune to shame. "You may go now."  
  
Iruka stood up and walked towards the door, wiping his face with the sleeve of his shirt as he went. It just wouldn't do to be seen crying outside - not with bullies like Tokurou and Bakura hanging around. Granted, those two had passed the academy exam last year, but they always felt like coming back to torment some of their old bullying victims. Like himself for instance.  
  
"Ah, Iruka." The Hokage called out, moments before Iruka opened the door to the office. "One last thing. Why did you claim that young Kurenai wasn't involved? I do have a reliable witness who says that you were both in on the incident."  
  
The black haired boy paused and drooped his head for a moment. "She's smart," he replied, "she shouldn't have to have her reputation wrecked because of something that I planned and did."  
  
The third merely smiled, knowing that Iruka couldn't see his features. "I see. You may leave now."  
  
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()() ()()()()()()()()()()()()()  
  
"I guess I did take his words to heart in the end." Continued Iruka, "Besides, I felt happy teaching all the children. But." He looked at Kakashi and smiled a wry little smile. "I guess, seeing Naruto stride towards his goal. I guess it made me think about my own goal."  
  
Kakashi nodded. "You'd need training, tough training - but you'd probably squeeze through as you are now. Personally, I think you should go for training, after all, in the jounin exam everyone needs all the help they can get."  
  
"What will Naruto think?" The scarred chuunin asked himself. "I guess. I guess I do want his approval in this."  
  
The copy-ninja raised his single visible eyebrow. "Oh?" he asked, "Why?"  
  
Iruka smiled to himself and stared up at the ceiling. "Naruto. I guess you could say he's like a younger brother to me now, I wouldn't want to go into something this crazy without knowing how he felt about it."  
  
"Yeah, well." Kakashi glanced towards the door for a moment and saw a jounin he knew making a few discreet hand signals. "Well, I have to go - got to do a little shopping you know?"  
  
"Just don't load up on dirty books like last time, If I'm going to do this I won't have time to provide you with meals every other day." Grumbled Iruka.  
  
"Heh, have I ever let anyone down before?" Kakashi asked as he prepared to leave."  
  
"Yes." Came the reply, as the copy-ninja was just about to leave the room. Shrugging, the masked man stepped outside and vanished in a blur of movement.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto was racing back to the hospital. Not that long ago his sometimes sensei, the pervert sennin Jiraiya had approached him and informed the young genin that the two of them were going to be heading out on a little trip.  
  
On the one hand he was excited, yet on the other he was somewhat depressed at the thought of leaving Temari to wake up without him present again. Well. maybe she'd be awake by the time he returned to the hospital.  
  
Speeding up slightly, Naruto bounced along from rooftop to rooftop, mentally replaying the kiss in his mind. Would Temari even remember that she'd kissed him?  
  
Knowing his luck, probably not.  
  
As he bounced from place to place - occasionally rebounding off of a wall if no available landing spot presented itself - the young fox-like boy stayed quite deep in thought. So deep, in fact, that he never noticed Iruka until the older man grabbed him by the back of his orange jumpsuit.  
  
"Naruto!" He exclaimed, "Just the person I wanted to talk to!"  
  
In the grip of his ex-teacher, Naruto squirmed about like a fish on the end of a hook. "What do you want!" He wailed, "I haven't done anything!"  
  
Iruka blinked and narrowed his eyes. Obviously Naruto had done something to deny it so quickly. Well, it could be forgotten this time - there were more important things to talk about.  
  
"You're. not in trouble Naruto," he began, "I just. I guess I just wanted your opinion on something."  
  
This, to the blonde-haired genin, was unusual. Most unusual in fact. "My. opinion?" he asked, "What for? What on? Why mine?"  
  
"Naruto." Iruka sat down on the edge of the building the two stood upon and dangled his legs over the edge of the roof. "In a few weeks time there's going to be an. event, one that I hope to participate in. I. I guess I'm just asking for your approval over my going to this event."  
  
"Naaaa." The blonde genin looked at his ex-teacher and frowned. "What event is it?" He asked after a few moments thought, slightly stunned that Iruka of all people would want his approval!  
  
The academy teacher glanced at Naruto for a moment, then looked out towards the edge of the village.  
  
"The jounin exam." He said at last, causing Naruto to jump to his feet in shock.  
  
"You're kidding!" exclaimed the boy, "You. a jounin?"  
  
"Yeah it is a strange thing but." Iruka sighed. "Way back, when I was about your age, becoming a jounin was my goal - I wanted to become a jounin to make the spirits of my parents proud."  
  
"Why. why didn't you?" Iruka paid no attention to the question Naruto asked, he'd known that the boy was going to ask it anyway.  
  
"I guess, I learnt that my parents would have been proud of me regardless of what I became - as long as I was happy really." He smiled and looked at Naruto, his eyes shut and his face covered with a grin. "I never would have taught you if I became a jounin, so I guess I'm glad about that. You've. grown. You've grown into a fine young man. One that, I feel, your parents would be proud of - even if you never get past this point they'll be proud."  
  
"Iruka-sensei." Naruto began. "If you become a jounin then I'll. I'll. I'll treat you to Ramen!"  
  
Iruka threw his head back and laughed, "I take it that's a yes then!" He exclaimed, slipping down from his seat onto the ledge below. "Well, in that case - I'd better go start training." He grinned, "I don't want to miss that ramen you've promised after all!"  
  
With that, the two nodded at each other and bounced away - one to train, the other to say goodbye to a certain girl with sandy hair.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"You're going?" During his absence Temari had awoken. This time, however, she felt no real need to chase Naruto down. Mostly because she didn't want to faint and end up in hospital again.  
  
"Pervert-sensei said that he would teach me some stuff as we went." Naruto smiled at his fiancee, causing the older girl to blush ever so slightly - though she wasn't quite sure why exactly. "I guess maybe the girls got wise to his peeping habits and he just wants to go somewhere else for a while. Until they stop trying to kill him on sight anyway."  
  
"Well." Temari stared at the sheets of her bed for a few moments, her face in a slight frown. "I guess I should give you something to make sure you come back in one piece then, right?"  
  
Naruto blinked at her statement. "Give me something? What? A weapon? A scroll?" The boy practically bounced on his seat as the mental images of weapons and scrolls wandered lazily through his head.  
  
"No. neither of those." Came the reply, "Just close your eyes."  
  
"Okay. if you say so." Naruto said, pouting for a moment before his eyes were completely closed.  
  
Within the dark space behind his eyelids, Naruto heard the rustling of cloth - obviously Temari was moving to give him his gift. Suddenly, without warning, something soft brushed against his cheek - something soft and warm.  
  
A kiss.  
  
"When you come back," he heard Temari say, "You'll get a matching one on the other side. Now, just, hurry up! Before that pervert guy leaves without you!"  
  
'And before,' she added mentally, 'before you see me start to cry.'  
  
Chapter 10 - Ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes -  
  
Well. This was. a miracle. That's what it was. And I'm not just talking about how fast it came out either.  
  
I'm not gonna claim even the slightest bit of responsibility for this chapter as, frankly, I had no intention of it coming out this way. it just seemed to write itself o.O;  
  
And it wrote itself pretty damn fast too. ^^;; I dunno. Maybe my subconscious mind is trying to tell me something?  
  
'Drink more coffee' probably.  
  
Aaanyway, enjoy this chapter and, just so you know, the trip Naruto is heading off on is the trip to find Tsunade that occurs in the manga (not much is gonna change there, the fic will concentrate on those left behind while Naruto's away)  
  
As to Iruka. well. It just seemed to make sense to me at the time, that's all o.o;; I figure that he came from the same genin year as Yuuhi (the team 8 jounin instructor) and that there was a jounin exam shortly before the beginning of the manga. He failed, but those of his age group ended up passing.  
  
That or he failed one much earlier and then abstained from the next ones, whilst others from his year went into and passed 'em.  
  
Well. See you next chapter I guess.  
  
- Lackey H - Wondering if Icha Icha paradise has illustrations or not. 


	11. Children

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction.  
  
Chapter 11 - Children  
  
"So." Temari whispered, "He's doing well then?" her question was the one that had also been on the mind of the mind of the pink-haired girl beside her.  
  
"Did they say when they would be coming back?" Asked team seven's Sakura. Not that team seven consisted of much right now, what with Sasuke, along with Kakashi, in hospital and Naruto off on a training journey with Jiraiya.  
  
"The messenger only said that they were well, that's all." Came the reply - along with a few puffs of acrid smoke. With their instructor down, the remainder of team seven, all two of them, had been temporarily assigned to Sarutobi Asuma - the instructor of team ten. "If they did get in trouble you'd be the first to know about it, I'm sure."  
  
'Unless it involves Orochimaru. Or Itachi. Or any number of the things that have to be kept secret.' Thought the chain-smoking jounin. 'They still don't know the real reason why their team-mate and instructor are in hospital - only that they were injured 'training' somehow.'  
  
It had been almost a week since Jiraiya and Naruto had headed off into, apparently, the middle of nowhere. A few days ago Sasuke had suddenly been admitted into the hospital with 'training injuries'. Not that Sakura believe the, rather flimsy, lie. After all, Sasuke wasn't stupid enough to hurt himself that badly whilst training.  
  
Sakura had reacted badly at first, hovering over Sasuke's bed in a manner which, Temari thought, was not unlike that of the many vultures which lived in the Wind country. After a while she had begun to calm down and had begun training like a crazed hyena.  
  
Temari had, some time back, found comparing people's actions to normally disliked animals to be really a rather amusing little hobby.  
  
For reference, she thought Asuma acted like some kind of sloth. Or maybe like a giant carp. One of the two at least.  
  
At this moment, the three of them were sitting in a small classroom, with Asuma leaning on a large desk at the front of the room and the two female genin sitting down on the front-row bench opposite him.  
  
"Now then, it appears that you two have a mission." Stated the bearded Jounin, "C-rank, possibly B depending on how things go, nothing particularly dangerous - just difficult."  
  
"A mission?" Sakura perked up slightly, "What sort of mission? And who requested it?" She wasn't normally interested in doing missions but. well, it was something to do. Something more constructive than moping about and trying to train in what she already knew almost off by heart. Next to her, Temari also began to pay more attention - this would be her first mission under the leaf after all. Not that she was actually a leaf-nin yet, she was still technically a member of the sand right now. That said, she was beginning to feel less and less resistance to the idea of becoming a leaf- nin.  
  
"Actually. It was requested by Iruka of the academy. I believe he was your sensei during your last year, wasn't he?" Sakura nodded at Asuma's question. Inside her mind, however, Inner Sakura was cursing like a drunk sailor over his stupidity, especially since she knew that his team ten had also been taught by Iruka, along with pretty much every kid who had become a genin this year.  
  
"Iruka-sensei?" She asked, "What would he want to request a mission for?"  
  
"And if he did," Added Temari, "Is he the one paying for it or not?"  
  
Asuma blinked at Temari's question and took a long, slow, drag at his cigarette. It seemed like an innocent question until you realized the big distinction it made. If Iruka was paying, then it was something personal. If, on the other hand, he wasn't paying then it would have to be something the village wanted them to do for Iruka.  
  
"Ah," he began, pulling his cigarette out and tapping the ash into a nearby metal ashtray that he had fished out of his pocket and placed on the desk earlier. "It's the second one because your mission is to cover for Iruka whilst he goes about some personal business."  
  
Asuma smiled. It was a smile that instantly made Temari compare him to another type of creature - a wild shark.  
  
"You two are to be substitute tutors at the academy. You'll be teaching Iruka's class."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Some distance away, Iruka sneezed.  
  
The chuunin was in one of the small training areas that was secreted away in a relatively quiet area of the forest that the leaf village was hidden within. This particular area was a clearing in the trees. The ground there was littered with a variety of large rocks and lengths of dead tree trunks. In fact, Iruka had dragged most of the rocks and trunks, with some difficulty, to the clearing himself in preparation for his training.  
  
After managing to sink one trunk slightly into the ground, the chuunin instructor had begun a basic workout - a mix of punches, kicks and body blows which characterized his chosen way of fighting. With each blow the trunk shook slightly, occasionally shedding chips of wood as it was struck by a particularly effective strike.  
  
So engrossed in his training was the scarred man that he didn't even notice the presence of another until she coughed loudly to get his attention. Iruka paused mid kick and lowered his leg before speaking to his unseen visitor.  
  
"Kurenai-san." He began as he reached out with one hand to lean on the tree trunk. "I should have guessed you'd be the first to find me."  
  
"This place was always your favorite training spot Sendatsu-san." Came the slightly amused reply as the dark-haired female jounin stepped over to put her hand on Iruka's shoulder. Leaning around him, using his shoulder as a pivot, she peered at his face. "It was only natural that I would find you here, right?"  
  
The chuunin laughed and pushed away from the trunk, causing Yuuhi to pull her hand away from his shoulder. Shrugging to herself the jounin located a suitable rock and promptly used it as a seat.  
  
"You heard then? That I was going to give it another try?" Asked Iruka, as he began to kick at the trunk - first with one leg, then with the other, filling the clearing with the rhythmic 'thunk, thunk, thunk' of flesh hitting wood.  
  
"At the jounin exam? Yes, I heard. Really, I'm pleased that you're going to give it another go after all this time." Yuuhi leant back and stared at the light filtering in through the leaf-canopy above. "We never did expect you to give up on the exam after failing it once, everyone thought that you would keep trying. After all, you always were insistent that you'd become a jounin." She paused and glanced at Iruka, a faint smile flashing across her face. "You were almost as bad about that as Naruto is with his belief that he'll become Hokage one day."  
  
Iruka's tensed slightly at Yuuhi's words, his leg slamming into the trunk with enough force to cause cracks to appear in the side of the dead wood. "That. was in the past." He began, "After I failed I tried teaching and found that I liked it, so I kept with it. Besides." He looked at Yuuhi and grinned, ". as I recall it, you failed the first time as well. And the second time. And the third time too."  
  
Yuuhi pouted, "Yeah, well. Fourth time lucky and all that." She bowed her head slightly and glared at Iruka from under the few strands of hair that fell over her eyes. "At least I passed in the end. Even if I did have to fight off a few of our old class afterwards. Ugh, can you believe that they all tried to impress me with their new rank - all at once?"  
  
Laughing at the mental image that produced, Iruka paused in his kicking. "Well," he stated, the mirth evident in his voice, "You were the most eligible girl in class at the academy. Then you were the most wanted female genin, then most lusted-after female chuunin. Everyone had a crush on you back then!" "Even you, Sendatsu-san? Did even little Iruka, class clown, have a crush on me?" Yuuhi's voice dropped low into a sultry whisper as she teased the training chuunin.  
  
Iruka's laugh died out at the whisper. ". you know the answer to that." He muttered, resuming his kicks against the log. "I did say everyone, after all."  
  
The dark-haired jounin merely smiled. "Well," she began, "I suppose I should have expected that. Really Iruka, how do you intend to get through the exam this time anyway? As I recall you haven't fought seriously since you began teaching. Heck, you even managed to avoid a fight during that incident with the Sand."  
  
". I had a duty to perform." Replied the chuunin as he ceased his kicks and switched to a variety of striking techniques instead.  
  
"I know Sendatsu-san, I know." Yuuhi swung her legs out and hopped off the rock she had been sitting on. "Well. I'm sure that by now Kiba is causing havoc. I guess I should head off to prevent him from doing too much damage." The jounin smiled slightly at Iruka as she turned to leave.  
  
"Good luck Sendatsu-san, I hope that the next time we speak you'll have a jounin rank behind you."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Konohamaru!" Came the female shriek of anger. "You give Shizuo her bow back right this minute!" Glaring at the offensive little brat known as Konohamaru, Sakura hoped that maybe - just maybe - she'd be able to get away with murder. The black haired boy had been a pain in the neck ever since her mission - as a substitute teacher - had begun.  
  
Temari, on the other hand, was somewhat more experienced than Sakura In such matters and so hadn't really been suffering as much as the pink-haired girl.  
  
For example, Sakura had just yelled at the ingrateful brats until they behaved - which was a tried and true method. Temari, however, had used an ancient Sand village teaching method.  
  
. Namely, tying the first person to misbehave to the ceiling.  
  
It had worked like a charm, silencing the class in mere moments, much to the annoyance of Sakura, who had then spent the better part of an hour ranting about how inhumane such treatment of students was. On the other hand, Inner Sakura was proclaiming great compliments about Temari's genius in dealing with delinquents.  
  
At present a status quo had been reached between the 'teachers' and the students. It was a simple arrangement really, the students agreed not to make trouble and Temari agreed not to terrify them to the point of them having to visit the little nin's room.  
  
Such a working arrangement is probably the holy grail of teachers everywhere.  
  
"Henge no jutsu!" There was a puff of acrid smoke and then, in place of what had been a student was an almost perfect copy of Temari. Well. Except for the hair at least.  
  
"Miyako, do I look like I have long hair to you?" Asked the real Temari, as she stared at the hairstyle the student's illusion of her had. Specifically, the two bunches of hair nearer the bottom of her head had, in this illusion, been replaced with two long ponytails. It was, Temari had to admit, a rather fetching look on her body.  
  
It was still incorrect though.  
  
"One more time now." She suggested, keeping her gaze level as a further puff of smoke signaled the reversion of her student to her normal form.  
  
"Henge no jutsu!" The students hands whipped through the incredibly simple seals needed for this most basic of techniques and, after blinking a few times to get the smoke out of her eyes, Temari found herself looking at a near perfect replica of herself.  
  
A tiny warm feeling emerged somewhere near the top of her chest. It felt, she later decided, a lot like pride. Not egotistical pride but instead pride in someone else. Yes, that seemed about right.  
  
Perhaps this was what her instructor, Baki, had felt like whenever she and her brothers had completed a mission or some strict training regime with flying colors. Was this the feeling that drew people into the teaching profession?  
  
Pride, in her student? In someone she had taught?  
  
Well, it was that or she'd been thinking about Naruto without realizing again.  
  
Either way though, Temari found it to be quite, quite a pleasant feeling.  
  
"Sexy no jutsu!"  
  
A feeling, which promptly dissipated the moment Konohamaru decided to try showing off the technique he had learnt from Naruto such a long time ago.  
  
The rest of the lesson proceeded rather smoothly. If one ignored the muffled protests of the short black-haired boy tied to the ceiling at least.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto sighed as he trudged along the dirt path alongside his current sensei, the pervert sennin Jiraiya. The blonde genin idly kicked at stones as he let his feet drag him along the ground.  
  
To be honest, he wanted to continue practicing the technique Jiraiya was supposedly teaching him. Unfortunately, the old pervert had run out of balloons - which rendered the plan of further training null and void as it required the use of balloons.  
  
"Oi!" He yelled after a while, causing the elder man to glance down from the notepad he was scribbling on.  
  
"What?" Came the irritated reply from Jiraiya, who was obviously not happy about having his sketching interrupted. "What do you want now?"  
  
Naruto looked away from the famous sennin and stared at the rocks and trees that littered the side of the path they were following. "You." He began, then paused - uncertain of where to begin. "You. You know about girls, right?" came the eventual question, to which Jiraiya raised an eyebrow in vague amusement.  
  
"I would say I know a little about them, yes." He began, his voice serious. Not that it stayed that way for long as, after slipping his notepad away, he hopped in front of Naruto and grabbed him by the shoulders.  
  
"For I am." He declared, "The greatest womanizer the world has known! Ahaha!"  
  
Naruto, however, merely shook his head in disgust. "Stupid pervert-sennin." He glanced away, not wanting Jiraiya to see the evilly cunning gleam in his eyes. "You're just full of hot air! You probably haven't even kissed a girl before!"  
  
Jiraiya froze.  
  
Naruto whirled to glare at the older man, his mouth wide in a mocking grin. "Ha! I'm right! You've never kissed a gi-urk!" Jiraiya's hand - which had somehow appeared around Naruto's throat - squeezed slightly, just enough to warn Naruto about the bad idea of continuing his sentence.  
  
"Never. Kissed. A. Girl?" Jiraiya's face filled Naruto's vision. Idly the genin noted that the sennin's left eye was twitching like some kind of deranged hummingbird. "You, boy, are obviously in need of education."  
  
Suddenly, the foxy little ninja felt himself being swung into the air by his hair as Jiraya spun on one foot with one arm - and Naruto - swinging out to keep him balanced. "So then come, my little chikadee! You're going to see a master at work!" He yelled, moments before biting the thumb of his free hand and smacking it down onto the ground.  
  
With a gloopy 'pop' and a swampy smelling cloud of smoke, a red and black toad the size of a ramen cart appeared under Jiraya's feet. Naruto, who had just recovered from being swung about like a rag doll blinked once as his mind informed him that the toad had just crouched down. and toads only crouched like that for one reason.  
  
"Yaaaaahhh!" Naruto screamed as the toad took off with Jiraiya on it's back and himself flapping around like a ribbon in Jiraiya's hand.  
  
"Nyahahaha!" Laughed Jiraiya, "To the nearest village!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She crept through the village, her body never once leaving the pitch black shadows cast by various buildings. She was a girl on a mission, a mission of truth, justice and love.  
  
Well. No. Actually she was just creeping to the Yamanaka flower shop in order to talk with the blonde haired Ino. The creeping and sneaking, however, were very much in need as her family would, most definitely, not approve of just why she was going to see Ino.  
  
Naruto.  
  
Just his name sent a tiny little spark of. well. a spark of something down her spine. The mental image of his smiling face caused heat to build up in her cheeks and her heart to start beating that little bit faster.  
  
Temari.  
  
The girl who's name promptly smothered everything she felt at her thoughts of Naruto.  
  
Hyuuga Hinata was not, by nature, a very vengeful person. She was quiet, polite and calm. She said 'please' and 'thank-you' when needed, apologised for things she had to apologise for. She followed orders without question and never rebelled.  
  
Except once.  
  
Once she rebelled.  
  
And. she had liked it.  
  
Loved it.  
  
The intense feeling of being able to do things for and by herself without needing anyone else to do it for or to do it for her.  
  
Hinata was not a selfish person. She never wanted or begged for anything.  
  
Well. There was one thing she wanted.  
  
"Naruto-kun." She whispered as she leapt across a gap between two rooftops with all the grace and skill of someone who was either incredibly reckless, or incredibly skilled enough to do it. In her case, really, it was a little of both. Skill borne from years and years of ninja training, and recklessness that stemmed from depression.  
  
It seemed that it was time to rebel again. This time, however, it wouldn't be against her family - but against the sheer possibility that Naruto might actually like that. that. that yellow haired.  
  
Hinata blinked in confusion. She really, really did need to learn how to insult someone. Perhaps that was just one more thing she could ask Ino about, after all the Yamanaka girl seemed quite proficient at insulting Sakura. So, perhaps, she could give Hinata a few pointers for when she inevitably insulted Temari.  
  
Hyuuga Hinata was not a vengeful person.  
  
Not usually anyway.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The sky was growing dark as the sun set over a cluster of large hills in the distance. The academy's schooling period had ended a short while ago - leaving Temari with enough time to take the longer route back to Naruto's home.  
  
Her home.  
  
The air was cold, even inside - just another indication that winter was drawing closer she decided. It was, she guessed, yet another thing that she would have to get used to. From the few short conversations she had participated in with Sakura, winter here apparently hit a lot harder than it did in the Wind country for some reason. According to the pink haired girl - who seemed to be getting over her original suspicion of Temari - a drastic change of wardrobe would be in order.  
  
Slumping into a seat at the dining room table, Temari reached out and spun one of the dials, which controlled the heating - nothing fancy, just hot water in pipes - and waited. After a few minutes she felt a noticeable change in the temperature of the room and sighed happily to herself.  
  
So now she had a whole evening to herself. How. dull.  
  
Sliding off of her seat, Temari stalked up to her room and towards the boxes of stuff that she had bought with her when she had arrived in the village. After a short rummage, she pulled out two scrolls - one in each hand - from the box. They were two of the several scrolls that her brothers, Kankuro and Gaara, had apparently copied and hidden for her. Sitting cross-legged upon her bed, Temari carefully opened the seal on the first scroll and unrolled it slightly. After staring at what was written, she rolled it back up and skillfully re-fixed the seal that kept it closed.  
  
After all, she would need a new fan before she could use anything on that scroll evidently - and suitable large combat fans were, well, somewhat scarce around here. As were the materials needed to make them to her standard.  
  
The blond-haired girl snorted in annoyance. Scarce? More like non-existent. She wouldn't be able to get a suitable fan until she could get an order through to one of the larger cities in the Wind country. Heck, she wasn't even sure it was possible for her to get an order to anywhere in the Wind country. That said, she knew she couldn't afford a new fan at present. Of course, since her 'mission' at the academy was an internal mission within the village and for the village she herself was being paid for it.  
  
After all, it would be rather pointless for the village to pay itself for her work.  
  
Still. With no fan, no materials to make a strong enough fan herself and no money to buy one - or even just the materials - Temari was stuck.  
  
Cracking the seal of the second scroll, the ex-Sand-nin unrolled a section of it and skimmed over the text there. Her eyes widened slightly as she stopped and began reading from the beginning, this time making sure to take in every word. She would have to have some help training - she knew her body wasn't quite up to what the first technique on this scroll demanded - but this technique. Well. It was enough to put a slight smirk on her face.  
  
Re-rolling and sealing the scroll, Temari gently placed it on a shelf near her bed. Carefully she re-hid the other scroll in her box of things and pushed the whole lot out of the way.  
  
Sighing to herself, the blonde haired girl pulled off her shirt and stared at her body in a slim mirror she had attached to one wall on her first day in the village. Her mind wandered, back to that first morning. That one time when Naruto had walked in on her whilst she had been in the bathroom.  
  
In her home country, such a thing was frowned upon. unless both parties were engaged. Heck, it was usually the female who 'accidentally' walked in on the male in that case. Well, why not? How else were they going to know what to expect come wedding night?  
  
But Naruto was too young. Heck, she herself was still too young!  
  
Then again. The laws on ages were different here weren't they? If she herself was to chose a husband, she'd be doing it just under a year from now - when she hit sixteen. On the other hand, Naruto would have been capable of choosing a wife two years from now, when he would become fourteen.  
  
And here they were, engaged and, if Naruto was twelve like she thought, they would be married in two years.  
  
By now it was possible to see the stars twinkling in the sky outside her window as Temari leant on the windowsill, staring up at the heavens.  
  
Two years.  
  
Such a long time and, yet, so little. Would she even find any real feelings for the boy? Granted, he was brave and didn't hold a grudge against her. But, well, he was young. And not too bright either.  
  
But.  
  
Well.  
  
She thought he was. nice.  
  
That was a definite start, right?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Bah! I thought you were supposed to be a great sennin!" Yelled Naruto, as he ground an ice-pack against the side of Jiraiya's face, causing the older man to groan in pain. "You couldn't even dodge that girl!"  
  
Naruto leaned forwards, his eyes opposite Jiraiya's. "Why?" he asked after a few moments of silence.  
  
"Ah." Jiraiya nodded - then grimaced as the ice pack being held against his face ground over the giant bruise it was covering. "That," He began, "Is something you should learn boy. If a girl wants to hit you because she's angry. let her."  
  
Naruto blinked. "Huh?"  
  
Nodding to his young pupil, the ero-sennin grinned. "Women believe they're smarter than men." He began, "But they don't realize that we can manipulate them a much as they can manipulate us - by letting an angry girl hit you it makes them work of their anger quickly. Otherwise they could resort to more. subtle forms of revenge."  
  
Frowning, the young Genin puzzled his way through this nugget of masculine wisdom. "So. They hit us instead of doing something worse, right?" He ventured at last, grinning when Jiraiya nodded.  
  
"Fact of life kid, fact of life." The old man nodded solemnly. "Supposedly everyone want's me to explain these facts of life as we go along. Well, that's the first."  
  
"Yup." He murmured. "Fact of life."  
  
Chapter 11 - end.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes -  
  
Oh but the girls are going to want to kill me X.x welcome to the wonderful world of Jiraiya-vision.  
  
So anyway, the great age debate(tm) comes to the fore in this chapter, in which Temari believes Naruto's age to be twelve. For reference, it's assumed Temari is sixteen.  
  
And, I will emphasize this, I pay *NO* attention to any flames concerning age laws. I'm British, our age of consent is 16. I am also aware of more than one country in which the age of consent if 14 thus in this fic, there are no implausible age-laws.  
  
For reference, I decided (quite randomly) that the age of consent in Fire country (and thus Leaf Village) is 14, and that of Wind country (and Sand Village) is 16.  
  
Now, arranged marriages have been known to bypass age laws so that very young couples can be husband and wife - however they can't do anything like 'that' until they're old enough.  
  
Aaanyway.  
  
Does Iruka actually have a canon family name? I looked, but I couldn't find reference to one so I gave him the family name 'Sendatsu' which I found, after I named him, means 'guide, leader, pioneer' . heh. ^^;;  
  
Of course, if anyone does tell me that Iruka has a canon family name, I'll be happy to correct it. ^-^  
  
Edit: apparently some sites have 'umino' listed as his canon family name.  
  
Umino Iruka.  
  
What a. sad joke. 'Dolphin of the sea' indeed. Anyway, I'm not going to change my fic (since, I haven't seen actual definite proof of that name anyhow) but, instead, I will incorporate this mistake in as part of the story ^^;; which I'll have to explain in a different chapter.  
  
Another Edit: yes yes. I meant henge, not bunshin. That's been corrected and I feel so horribly ashamed for not only *making* that mistake, but missing it every time I read through as well. -.-; dernit.  
  
Lackey H - Weeping for Chouji. 


	12. Actions

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction. By Lackey H  
  
Chapter 12 - Actions  
  
"Hyaaah!" Naruto screamed as the backlash from his Rasengan washed over him like water made of glass shards. His orange overalls gained a collection of new rips and tears in addition to those they were already covered with.  
  
That, unfortunately, was one of the big problems with the second tier of the Rasengan technique. No matter where he aimed, or how well he tried to shield his body, the sheer force of the air pressure from the wind spiral always tore into him worse than any blade could have done. Hopefully when he mastered the technique, by perfecting the third and final tier of the move, he wouldn't have to put up with having both him and his clothing partially shredded each time he used it.  
  
The third tier.  
  
Not that he'd made much progress in that so far, not even non-stop practicing had given him any hints as to how to get it right.  
  
Well. He would.  
  
He would succeed.  
  
Dammit! He was not going to lose the bet he made with that freakishly strong old woman, even if Jiraiya insisted that she was Tsunade, one of the famous three ninja!  
  
Pulling himself to his feet from where the air pressure had sent him sprawling, Naruto held up one clenched fist in front of his face, his eyes burning with conviction. "I will master the Rasengan!" He yelled, his declaration echoing around the somewhat devastated area he had been practicing in.  
  
Minutes later he was flung to the ground, yet more shallow cuts adorning both him and his clothing.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The days were ticking past quite rapidly now. Not that they were any shorter though, it was just that they were so repetitive. Every day it was the same routine for her - wake up, spend several hours teaching, go home and eat, go train with Asuma-sensei and Sakura.  
  
All in all, Temari was of the opinion that life was pretty good. Granted she was still upset over her continued failure to procure a new fan - or materials to make one herself. On the other hand, though, her lack of a weapon was forcing her into training her unarmed taijutsu skills, along with a few basic genin-level ninjutsu and genjutsu. Nothing spectacular, just a simple fire jutsu - nothing more than a small spark really - and some better genjutsu defenses.  
  
Then, of course, there was that.  
  
Her big secret, the special technique she was learning from one of her scrolls, the one skill that she intended to show off at the next scheduled chuunin exam. Well, either then or whenever someone next angered her enough to warrant it's use at least. Still, she had to master if first - at present she could barely muster up enough concentration to get it working whilst standing still when, really, she really needed to be able to perform it mid-combat.  
  
Ah well, she had time enough to practice it away from prying eyes.  
  
"Temari-san!" Temari blinked as she heard her name being called atop the sound of someone beating on the door to her - Naruto's - home. Grumbling she pulled herself to her feet and, letting her currently gathered chakra dissipate harmlessly, stalked out of the training room.  
  
"Temari-san!" Hmm, the voice was vaguely familiar but it didn't sound like anyone that she could recognize very well. The thick wood of the front door muffled the voice enough to make it difficult to tell if it belonged to a girl or a child. This of course was a slight problem, mainly because Temari really didn't feel like answering the questions of the small fan base she had apparently developed amongst her students. On the other hand, she also didn't feel like dealing with the various village girls who were jealous of her, somewhat exotic, looks.  
  
"What!?" Temari swung the front door open wide, her yell clearly displaying her irritation at being interrupted in her training.  
  
The next thing she knew, a bucket of something wet and sticky impacted against her chest, covering the front of her shirt in its contents before falling to the floor, making a pool of sticky liquid around her feet.  
  
Standing as still and as unmovable as a statue of iron, Temari stared into space. Then, slowly, one hand reached up and touched her sticky shirt before then moving to bring a glob of the slimy substance up in front of her face. A small sniff confirmed her suspicion - she had just been covered in what was, apparently, swamp mud.  
  
Very, very, smelly swamp mud. It smelt as if she'd just been splattered in a mixture of rotten eggs, raw sewage and more than a little rotting meat. Given that it was swamp mud, there was the possibility of any of those three things actually being present in it. Naturally, however, Temari had but one thing to say before she spun on her foot and stalked - quickly - to the bathroom.  
  
"Someone is going to pay for this."  
  
If she had stuck around a few moments longer, she would have noticed the pale gleam of two pearly eyes in the shadows of a building across the street from Naruto's home. Also, she would have heard a faint giggle as the two eyes faded from view. That, thought Hyuuga Hinata as she made good her escape, had actually been pretty fun - no wonder Naruto had loved doing such things.  
  
Now then, what would Naruto do next?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto lunged forwards, the arms of the clone beside him blurring as the batted and rolled the ferocious winds that lay on his palm into a perfect sphere. Wide eyed, the medical spy Kabuto could do nothing to avoid the roaring ball of slicing winds as it slammed into his chest - hurling him away from Naruto and biting deep into his abdomen.  
  
Well, actually he had dodged it in the best way possible - by rolling with the blow and pulling away from Naruto in an attempt to lessen the damage. Admittedly, his plan had worked - barely, he still had an abdomen left after being hit. This was, given the sheer power of the Rasengan technique - even in the still unskilled hands of Naruto, an incredible feat in and of itself.  
  
Naruto coughed as his previous injuries, and also the loss of energy from using both Kage Bunshin and Rasengan, catching up to him. A crimson spray of blood erupted from his mouth to splatter upon the dusty rock floor as his body began to give up on itself. His vision dimmed and he began falling to the floor, his last sight being that of Kabuto managing to stand up despite his injuries, then darkness claimed him and he knew no more.  
  
The next thing Naruto knew, was that his room was white. A rather dirty white at that, a sort of cream-like color really, only much, much uglier. "Ugh." he mumbled, "Wh-where.?"  
  
"Don't speak." A soft voice cautioned, "Just rest for a while, you got beat up rather badly you know."  
  
"W-wh. who?" Naruto ignored the voice and tried to pull himself upright, only to find that a tiny poke to his chest pinned him to his bed like a butterfly pinned to a wall.  
  
"I said rest," repeated the voice. "Doctors orders you know."  
  
"She's right you know, heck, I doubt anyone could possibly be more right than her." Came a second voice, one that Naruto recognized as belonging to Jiraiya. "Then again, she does seem to be acting a little senile lately."  
  
"Senile!" Screeched the first voice, which was followed by, as close as Naruto could tell, the sound of violence alongside Jiraiya's voice begging for mercy. "Who's the senile one?" Naruto mentally winced at a particularly nasty sounding series of screams from Jiraiya. "Certainly not me, old pervert!"  
  
Stretching out, Naruto yawned - the exhaustion caused by his continued healing only just no registering in his mind. As he shuffled around slightly to get comfortable, he heard two people leaving the room, the psycho woman and Jiraiya presumably. Idly he noted that he still didn't actually know where he was, or how he got there. Eventually, however, he decided to just not worry about it for the moment, after all, someone was bound to tell him what happened sooner or later.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A few days after the swamp mud incident, Temari had finally gotten the smell of the horrible, sticky, mass off of her. It had been highly embarrassing to have to go through life with the smell that the mud had practically imbued into her - even multiple bathings and scrubbings had failed to get it off on that first day. Whoever had been behind the prank was destined to pay, or at least so she had sworn after finding out how much of the smell clung had to her.  
  
Unfortunately she had yet to find any clues as to who was behind the prank other than a brief tale from Sakura about how she vaguely remembered Naruto pulling off something similar around a year or two ago. Fortunately for Naruto, he was beyond suspicion since he was still miles away from the village.  
  
Or at least he would be if he knew what was good for him.  
  
Nevertheless... Temari, at present, suspected most of the village's inhabitants. Whilst many of the more experienced, or at least open-minded, villagers had decided to just ignore her on the premise that there was nothing they could do to make her leave anyway, there were still some who wished to see her gone.  
  
"Temari-sensei! Temari-sensei!"  
  
On the other hand, however, there were many who wanted her to stay for one reason or another. Amongst these were a handful of academy student, some of whom were in the class Temari taught, all of which practically idolized the blonde-haired girl.  
  
There was only one slight problem. A trifling thing actually, one some people would shrug off with a laugh. Needless to say that Temari, unfortunately, was not one of those people. You see, at the present moment in time Temari was not, exactly, a blonde haired girl. For, due to the machinations of some despicable being - presumably the same one that had been behind the swamp mud incident, Temari's hair was no longer the glorious color of fine sand.  
  
No, right now her hair was, to her disgust, an orange-brown color that was somewhat reminiscent of freshly dug red clay. Apparently someone had pulled a particularly well planned prank by preparing a bottle of the shampoo Naruto used and, somehow, using a variation of Kawarimi no jutsu to switch it with a bottle she had just been about to purchase. Admittedly, the shampoo Naruto used wasn't particularly kind to her hair, but then it wasn't like she had much choice in what she bought. After all, she hadn't yet received any form of pay for the work she was currently doing and, although there was enough food to last her until she did receive it, there wasn't' enough money to spend on trying a different, and more expensive, brand of shampoo.  
  
"Temari-sensei!" The collective voices of several girls cried once more, prompting Temari to spin on one foot to face the speakers.  
  
"What do you want!?" She barked, glaring at them as if she was a monster who's dinner plans included the children standing before her.  
  
When it became apparent that not a single one of the girls was even so much as trembling in fright, the ex-Sand-nin smiled slightly. Granted, the girls were annoying, clumsy and enough to drive anyone crazy but... well, they respected her enough to actually try to learn from her. Around the village female ninja, kunoichi, were in fact rather uncommon. Granted there were women like Anko and Yuuhi who both rose up to Jounin level and, in Anko's case, beyond it. Those women, however, had usually progressed so far at the expense of the things that made most female ninja stop at chuunin level - love, husbands and family for example.  
  
Temari nodded to the girls, causing them to break out into wide grins at her noting of their upholding her first lesson - never show fear. Not that the girls had suffered any difficulty with that... The boys at the academy, on the other hand, still made sure there was something solid between themselves and Temari whenever she entered the classroom.  
  
The leader of the small group of girls, a mischievous girl with black hair - which she had done up in a style similar to Temari's - stepped forwards. "Sabakuno-sensei!" She declared, referring to Temari by her family name. "We delivered the message like you instructed us to!" She reported, both herself and the rest of the group breaking into wide grins. "At exactly three hours past noon Lee-san received, and read, the message you entrusted to us!"  
  
Temari nodded as the girl rattled off a rather large amount of miscellaneous details such as the response to reading the message, the reply they had been given and, surprisingly, a lot of unneeded information. Sighing to herself, the Genin-level temporary instructor leant forwards and poked the girl in the forehead with one outstretched finger.  
  
"You," She began, "Don't need to give me so many details." Almost instantly the loud girl blushed in embarrassment and stared at the floor as the rest of the group closed in - sensing that Temari was going to give them a new lesson. "Remember this girls," she instructed, "During many missions a report to the one in charge of your squad is important. However, equally important is the time wasted in giving the report to them. This is why any report you give should be clear, concise and contain only the relevant information." She glanced at the girl she had just reprimanded and nodded. "Whilst you did get all the important details down, I really didn't need to know what types of flowers were in his room at the hospital - even if they were daffodils."  
  
The girls all backed away slightly and began whispering to themselves as they digested this new piece of advice from the girl - and teacher - that was rapidly becoming their idol. Then, like the ninja-in-training that they were, they vanished. Well, actually they just made a mad dash out of sight, but the intent was there at least.  
  
Actually, one of the girls had remained behind.  
  
"uhm." She was one of the smaller girls, Fuyumi was her name. At least, that's what Temari thought, and felt pretty sure, that it was. The girl was a tiny little thing with wavy shoulder-length white hair that swayed in the wind as she poked her fingers together whilst eying Temari's hair. "Sabakuno-sensei. uhm. your hair."  
  
Temari winced slightly and bought one hand up to tug at the hair that fell in front of her face. Bringing the strands she held into her line of sight she sighed and let go, allowing them to fall back into their natural position. "It's. nothing." She lied, "Just an accident, that's all."  
  
"Well... um... i... I think it looks... nice." Fuyumi stated, before blushing madly and vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Temari raised an eyebrow as the smoke cleared, clearly interested at the fact that the young student could perform such a trick, even when some of the older children from the year above still couldn't.  
  
"Thanks..." Murmured the older girl. "I think."  
  
A few minutes later she was still standing there, holding out a lock of her currently brown-red hair out so that she could see it.  
  
"Dammit." She whispered, "What will Naruto say?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"So, you're telling me that he's been engaged already?" Whispered the older blonde-haired woman as the party of four strolled down a dusty path that lead to a nearby town. She wore a specially tailored do-gi of a flannel- like material what consisted of black, loose, trousers and a much lighter - almost white - top that was held shut by a black belt around her waist. Over the top of this, fluttering in the wind, she wore a dark red cape-like coat that appeared to be made from high quality silk.  
  
Next to her, Naruto's sometimes tutor - the pervert Jiraiya - snorted in annoyance. "Pfff. Yeah. I don't even think the kid knows about what sort of things this could entail, you know?" Seeing his companion raise an questioning eyebrow, the self-proclaimed 'super pervert' glanced over to where Naruto and his companion's assistant, Shizune, were chatting away. "Dammit Tsunade, he doesn't even know about sex yet. I would have thought that someone should have seen to explaining something as potentially dangerous as that to him given his circumstances."  
  
The woman, Tsunade, glared at the white haired man. "Did I hear right?" She asked, "Did you, the greatest known pervert in the world, just say sex was 'dangerous' ?"  
  
"Hmph!" Jiraiya snorted and stated at the sky for a few moments before his gaze slowly made it's way to being focused on Naruto. "Naruto isn't ready for the complications that could cause. When I found out about this I went straight to the people who arranged this - it turns out that they just assumed he'd wait until he was mature enough to handle the consequences. You know, like children." Jiraiya swung a vicious kick at a pebble on the ground, his foot propelling the tiny rock shard with such force that it blasted into the air like a small rocket. "Didn't those damn fools even think for one second!? How could he possibly know when he will be mature enough when he doesn't even know what it is he should be mature enough for!?"  
  
"I suppose, for once, you're right old man." Whispered the medical legend. "So what do you plan to do about it? He doesn't deserve the problems not knowing could cause, just because no-one cared enough to explain it to him when they should have done." Tsunade smiled slightly as she watched the orange-clad boy wave his arms around as he described what could only have been a fight of some sort to Shizune.  
  
"No," She whispered, "He deserves better than that, a boy like him."  
  
Jiraiya smirked as he slowed his step to fall behind Tsunade slightly. "Well, I'm planning on explaining as much as I can to him when we get to the next town." He muttered, his line of sight travelling down until it rested upon Tsunade's rear. "It'd help to have you on hand afterwards to explain some of the things which happen afterwards I expect. You do, after all, know more about children than I do."  
  
"Well, I am the medical specialist after all." Tsunade replied, moments before her eyes slipped into an exasperated frown. "Jiraiya... If you're staring at me the way I think you are, I'll kick you so hard that you won't be able to think about women in the same way for the next year at least."  
  
The toad-sennin laughed nervously and quickened his pace to walk in front of Tsunade as an effort to convince her that he hadn't been staring.  
  
Such a kick would probably have been worth it when they were younger but now... No. There was just too much between them now for anything like that to be worth it anymore.  
  
"- was this big!" He heard Naruto exclaim, as the hyperactive little ninja hopped into the air with one arm stretched up as high as he could get it. "No, it must have been bigger than that!" Came the annoyed whine as Naruto's feet touched the ground again.  
  
Next to him walked Shizune, wearing her usual body-net shirt underneath a dark colored light kimono. She smiled at Naruto's boasting, nodding every so often to urge him to continue with his - slightly exaggerated - tale.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"She's settling in quite well, wouldn't you say?" Asked the first of the two ninja who, hidden in a hollow they hade made just under the roof of a building, were watching as Temari taught her class at the academy. Both he and his companion had been watching the Sand-nin girl from almost the day she arrived at the village. Well. Actually he, with his enhanced sight, had been doing most of the watching.  
  
"Most of the adults are still against her, but I think there may be enough connections for us to proceed with the plan soon enough." The second watcher, who appeared to be more interested in the people passing in the street below, sighed. "Damn, it'll be good to get out of this hell-hole and head back to the mountains." She winced and pulled a small fan from her jacket and began waving it in front of her face. "It's too damned hot here, I'm not used to being anywhere that snow doesn't fall every day."  
  
"Calm yourself Hokane, I heard that the nine-tails brat and the sennin passed through one of the gambling towns about a week or so from here." He shrugged, "So we wait for them to come back then we need to draw her out alone. Any ideas?"  
  
The woman stretched herself out and began to fan herself a little faster. "Bait, one of her students perhaps? Wait. Actually, we could use one of that group of girls - you know, the one's who seem to follow her everywhere?"  
  
The man grinned. "She does seem to speak with them more than anyone else, doesn't she? Fair enough, when the brat returns you can make the girl wander out - leading our target right into an ambush."  
  
"And then we can finally leave this place!" Half exclaimed, half squealed the man's partner.  
  
"Fair enough." Muttered the man, "We grab her and pass by you-know-who to drop her off. Once that's done we can go home."  
  
Next to him, the young woman glanced around before looking at her companion. "You... can look after things here for a while, right? I... I want to go see something before we have to leave, okay?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah," The man waved his hand in a vaguely dismissive, and uncaring, manner. "Whatever." That said, he turned his attention back to watching his target, blinking only once as the cold chill that was caused as his partner vanished from the hiding spot faster than anyone could see. An act which, of course, meant that air rushed to fill in the space in which she had occupied, causing both the cold chill he felt as well as a barely audible 'pop' of in-rushing air.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Ahhh..." Naruto sighed as he flopped backwards onto the small bed that his room had been furnished with. The room, like all the others in the small travel-inn the group had chosen to stay the night at, was small and contained only the essentials for a nights stay - such as a bed, a small washbasin and a tiny little table. A short walk down the hallway outside the room led to a pair of artificial springs which, while not as good as the real thing, had practically turned Naruto to jelly after a short period of relaxation in their warm waters.  
  
An urgent knocking at the door to his room caused Naruto to roll over and crawl to the door on all fours. After a few moments of scrabbling at a door- handle that was just out of reach, the genin succeeded in opening the door and crawled back to the bed. Behind him followed the unimpressed form of his mentor - a mentally unstable mentor no less - Jiraiya.  
  
"You know," began the older man, " I did tell you not to stay in the water for so long. You're still too small to spend all too long in water that hot."  
  
"Bah." Naruto grunted and managed to squirm his way into a sitting position that left him propped up against the wall at the head of the bed. "You just wait! I'll kick your ass you... open pervert!" The fox-like boy glared at the white-haired toad-sennin, as he attempted to feign innocence at Naruto's yell. "You didn't even get in the water! You just sat there up against the fence!"  
  
Jiraiya merely shrugged and looked heavenwards with what could only be called an attempt at a face filled with purity and light. "There is nothing wrong with sitting against a fence, Naruto."  
  
Needless to say, Naruto wasn't fooled for even a second. Swinging a lazy punch at Jiraiya's leg - a punch which unfortunately never made contact - he opened his mouth and yelled at the older man. "It is when it's the fence between the men's side and the women's side! And you weren't sitting! You were peeping!" The boy sat grumbling for a minute before looking up at his teacher with a questioning look upon his face.  
  
"Why," he asked, "Why do you peep all the time anyway? I... I mean, once you've seen one you've seen it all right? So... what's the point?"  
  
Jiraiya blinked, then fell to his knees and pressed his face up close against Naruto's, their noses almost touching. "You. Idiot." He stated, before retreating to a much more respectable distance. "Do you really think all young women look the same? Are you really that naïve, boy!?"  
  
"Well, uh," Naruto began, before he was cut off by Jiraiya's palm slicing through the air a rather uncomfortably close distance from his face.  
  
"No more 'lil chikadee, it seems you're in need of some eyes on experience in these matters." Jiraiya sighed lustily, "Every woman is like a new day - different and exciting, the way their hair waves in the breeze, the way the light sparkles in their eyes," he grinned slightly. "Even the way the move is amazing... Of course you have the clothes they wear - or don't, as the case may be, and naturally their chests but... that isn't as important as the rest of it."  
  
Naruto looked at his teacher with half open eyes. "Pfff..." He tilted his head slightly, looking away from the old man. "Yeah, right." Suddenly he shot his arm out an pointed at Jiraiya, the tip of his finger less than an inch from the white-haired man's nose. "You're just an open-pervert!" He exclaimed, "And you know it!"  
  
"Ha!" The old man laughed, "Boy, you would sing a different tune if you had but the exper... i... ance." As his voice trailed off on the last word, Jiraiya's mouth widened into a grin. It was, Naruto dimly thought, similar to the sorts of grins he possessed whenever he was planning to pull a prank or something similar.  
  
"Oh no. No. No. No." Naruto waved his hands in front of his face, as if to ward off his teacher. Needless to say that it had about as much effect as an umbrella against a monsoon. Within moments Jiraiya had grabbed the boy by one arm and dragged him out of the room - despite Naruto's protests about the fact that he was clad only in his pajamas.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"... Dammit." Temari's voice whispered across the space between where she sat and where her companion for lunch sat. "Why can't they be back already?"  
  
"Well, last I heard there had been some sort of explosion in one of the big cities east of here." Sakura nodded to herself before returning to munch on the rice-ball she held.  
  
Needless to say, the currently brown-haired, though normally blond-haired girl opposite her frowned. "An explosion? What does that have to do with anything related to Naruto?" She asked, her face slipping into a frown.  
  
"Dear Temari," Began Sakura, causing Temari to almost choke on her own food as she tried to glared at the pink-haired genin girl. "Naruto left east, right? Do you really think it's a coincidence that an explosion just happens to occur in a major city in the direction Naruto was travelling?" Sakura grinned to herself before she dropped the last fact she had overheard her parents discussing that morning. "Besides, according to the rumors several people saw some giant animals fighting each other some distance away a little while afterwards. I'm pretty sure that the old guy Naruto was travelling with is probably of high enough skill to summon something like that."  
  
That got Temari's attention quickly enough, "Giant animals?" She asked, her eyes locked onto Sakura, her gaze as intent as that of an eagle and her voice... well, that would have been just as intent had eagles been capable of speech. "Did anyone say what animals they were?"  
  
Slightly taken aback by the seemingly urgent directness in Temari's voice and attitude, Sakura stuttered a little as she tried her best to remember what she had heard. "A-a... a snake, I remember hearing about that one and, uhm, I think they said there was a slug too..."  
  
"And a toad." Stated Temari.  
  
"A frog or to-" Sakura blinked. Then she frowned slightly, "Hey, how did you know?"  
  
The brown-haired girl grinned and ran one hand through her dyed hair. "I guess it's certain then, Naruto was there - and if there was all that fighting, which then stopped, then he is probably finished and on his way back now." She grinned, baring her teeth in a smile that was both slightly reassuring and slightly predatory, "And as to how I know this? Well, Naruto has summoned a giant toad before - it only stands to reason that he could do it again."  
  
Chapter 12 - ended  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Authors notes: -  
  
Uhhh. damn. This one is late. Yes. Very late. Really late. .  
  
Basically I was under block. Then dead for a while. Then bogged down under an evil, evil, EVIL!Essay. Of evilness. Yes.  
  
(nb: EVIL!Essay bears no relation to EVIL!Manta. Should you actually understand that sentence, then you probably know the same people I know, thus putting one (or is it two?) degrees of separation between us.)  
  
Anyway. I would have extended it a bit longer but, well, this seemed like a good cutoff point and I really didn't want to make you people wait any longer... ^^;;  
  
And, as a last point - yes, yes, I know that it was Jiraiya that summoned Gamabunta in the fight that the girls are talking about at the end. But they don't know that. Temari, however, was present and conscious when Naruto summoned him much earlier though, so it's simple enough for her to put two and two together and get the wrong conclusion there.  
  
Anyway. Whee. My chapter plans got changed. How... fun. But I suppose it's for the best, since I think it was my planning which precipitated the block and deadness in the first place. Dammit! From here on out, now more chapter- by-chapter planning! (Although overall plot arc planning is fine ^.^;; I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid.) 


	13. Words

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction. By Lackey H  
  
Chapter 13 - Words  
  
"What!?" Sakura rose from her seat, slamming her hands flat upon the table between herself and Temari. "There's no way Naruto could perform a summoning! That's a jounin level jutsu!"  
  
"Isn't the Kage Bunshin a jounin level jutsu as well?" Asked the, now slightly smug, brown-haired girl. "And Naruto can pull that off with ease, the same ease any jounin could possibly perform it with I expect." Her words caused Sakura to pause for a moment before slowly returning to her seat with a speculative look on her face.  
  
"Well... I suppose that's true, he performed it at least as well as I've seen Kakashi-sensei perform it. Though I suppose Kakashi-sensei would have done better if he hadn't been injured and exhausted at the time." Sakura nodded at her words even as she did her best to ignore her inner-Sakura, who was quite happily pointing out that Naruto, too, had been injured and exhausted at that time on what was now called the Great Naruto Bridge.  
  
"He's strong... As strong as, no, maybe even stronger than my brother." Whispered the ex-sand girl, "It's terrifying, that such abnormal powers can exist in this world, and people used to believed that advanced bloodlines were terrifying enough." Temari smirked slightly and leant back in her chair, tilting her head back so that she could stare at the ceiling. "Hey..."  
  
Sakura, who had been thinking about Naruto and his almost miraculous ability to advance in skill and power, popped out of her thoughts and stared at her companion. "What?" She asked as Temari fell forwards until she was leaning on the table between them.  
  
"Why is Naruto so strong anyway?" The girl with dyed hair asked, "Is it an advanced bloodline or something? I mean, there's no way any normal genin could be that strong... Well, except for Gaara, but then he has reasons for it." Yes. Reasons, very terrifying reasons no less. Reasons that, frankly, Temari didn't want to think about any more than she had to.  
  
The pink haired genin-turned-teacher frowned at the question. "I have no idea." She stated, "If he was so strong, then we would have known about it – but he wasn't, he was a screw-up from the first day I met him an the academy. And now..." She trailed off as her eyes met Temari's and both girls gave each other a slight nod.  
  
"... Now he's incredible." Finished the older of the two. She seemed ready to say something else, but a flicker of movement near the door to the small tea-house they were sitting in caught her attention. "Ah," She sighed, "I have to go, I have some training I want to get in before it starts to get dark."  
  
At this, Sakura frowned again. Watching Temari stand up and stalk out of the building she could only wonder why she seemed to be spending almost all her free time training, what she was training in and, more to the point, who was actually training her.  
  
Well, she'd probably find out sooner or later. Besides, it wasn't like she didn't have any training of her own to attend to. Of course, her training was... unusual, so it was probably vastly different to what Temari was up to. Either way, Sakura was beginning to get mixed feelings about the sand- nin girl. At first she had thought as bad of her as almost everyone else in the village did, that of course had begun to change during their time working together. Now Sakura was finding it hard to understand just why people didn't like Temari.  
  
Oh, sure, she was a sand-nin still - but that was just a mere technicality really, until she married and donned the mark of the leaf, she would remain a sand-nin amongst leaf-nin. Once she married Naruto however...  
  
Well, Sakura always did think that the leaf had too few female ninja, another one such as Temari would be most welcome.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto screamed various obscenities as he was dragged, quite painfully, over rooftop after rooftop. He had lost count of how many roofs he'd been dragged over some time ago but he was pretty sure that he had been over some roofs more than once or twice. Evidently Jiraiya, the person dragging him around in this most painful manner, was looking for something.  
  
Naruto had already guessed what the open-pervert was looking for and, frankly, wasn't happy about it. It was bad enough when Jiraiya went off peeping alone – now the old pervert had decided to have some company on this trip, namely himself.  
  
"A-ha!" Naruto winced as Jiraiya let lose with a loud laugh of excitement. "Jackpot!" Lifting his arm, he raised Naruto into what was more or less a standing position and let go. The poor boy, already tired and now battered a bruised to boot, collapsed forwards as his legs gave out on him. Jiraiya merely nodded in approval. "Now Naruto," he began, "I know you're enthusiastic about this, but control yourself. We don't want to be discovered after all."  
  
"Who's enthusia-i-ai-ai..." Naruto's eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets as they took in the scene that this particular rooftop perch offered. Below them, and a little of to the side, a trio of young women were quite happily getting undressed ready for a dip in what looked like a small hot spring bath. The blonde boy gulped, his throat dry and his face burning. Admittedly the woman were still covered - barely - but just looking at them bought one particular memory of a certain sandy-blonde girl.  
  
Jiraiya knelt down next to Naruto and peeked over the edge of the roof, grinning wildly. "Ahhh..." he sighed, "Just perfect, they're well built, have lovely hair and faces as radiant as -oof!" The old man doubled over slightly due to Naruto's elbow being rammed into his stomach. Granted, it didn't hurt simply because he was much to tough for that, but it had taken him by surprise as he had been fairly sure that Naruto would be so entranced that he wouldn't have been able to move if he had wanted to. After all, had not he himself been a raging ball of male hormones when he was Naruto's age?  
  
Well. Actually the whole raging hormones thing had come a year later than that, but to him it seemed that Naruto had matured to that point a little early – possibly due to the presence of the kyuubi within him.  
  
It was only at this point that Jiraiya noticed that Naruto's eyes were screwed shut. His face was covered with a bright red blush, so obviously he was thinking along the lines that Jiraiya expected he would be thinking but... well. Jiraiya wasn't too impressed with the fact that Naruto's eyes were closed. How, after all, was the boy supposed to learn to appreciate the female form if he kept his eyes shut all the time? It was just mind- boggling, after all, what teenage boy didn't want to stare at semi naked women?  
  
"Boy," He began to say, "How do you expect to learn with your eyes closed? How do you expect to follow the graceful curves of a beautiful woman's body, how will you marvel at the way their hair falls across their skin, how will you..." Jiraiya frowned as he watched Naruto cover his ears with his hands. "I see." He murmured, "Well, we can do this the hard way if you want."  
  
Reaching up behind the boy, Jiraiya extended two fingers and concentrated for a moment, grinning madly as two tiny orange symbols appears on his fingertips, both etched out in burning chakra.  
  
"Double open eyed seal!" He muttered as he rammed his two fingers down against Naruto's backbone – the boy's eyes snapping open with an almost audible sound.  
  
Naruto suddenly found himself staring down at three women who were, to be blunt, less than decently attired. Assuming that Jiraiya had just used some fancy pressure point blow to force his eyes open, the young genin tried to shut them once more – and promptly found that he couldn't.  
  
"What..." he growled, "What did you do!" He yelled, rolling over onto his back and pulling his hands from his ears. Jiraiya merely nodded as Naruto tried, without much success, to close his eyes.  
  
The open-pervert nodded, his eyes closed, and spoke in a low, lecturing, tone of voice. "A two part seal of my own design, one that makes it possible to keep one's eyes open for incredibly long periods of time – meaning that they won't miss a single thing that could slip past them if they were to blink!" He nodded and leaned forward, "It also means you won't be able to close your eyes for a while so..." The old man grinned a grin that chilled Naruto to the bone. "... Enjoy." He stated as he quite casually kicked Naruto off of the building.  
  
"Damn yooooouuu open peerveeeert!" Naruto screamed as he fell, the air whipping past him and causing his eyes to sting since he just couldn't close them.  
  
Back up atop the building, Jiraiya peered over the edge and frowned slightly as he noticed something he hadn't noticed before. "Damn," he muttered, "Best to get out of here before I get spotted..."  
  
A quick glance down at the various beauties below, however, made his decision to leave waver.  
  
And... was that woman going topless? No? Well even so, the two-piece she was wearing could easily have been mistaken for something else – cotton thread maybe.  
  
Grinning to himself, the self proclaimed super pervert sat down and peered over the edge of the building. As he sat he made sure to be as quiet as he possibly could, so as not to attract attention to himself.  
  
Fortunately the sound of Naruto screaming insults on his way down to meet the earth below should be perfect at drawing attention, thus allowing him to peep in relative safety.  
  
Okay, so sure they'd beat Naruto senseless when he landed but hey, in perversion there are times sacrifices just have to be made.  
  
Besides, better Naruto than himself after all.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A ramen stand was not, exactly, the best place to hold a secretive meeting. Then again, in a village full of Ninja, Kunoichi and other Shinobi, very few places were good for holding secret meetings. Still, of the available locations this particular ramen stand was the best of what was a pretty pathetic selection. It wasn't too busy, but there were enough customers around to mask a quite conversation with their own sounds. At least, as long as no-one was specifically listening for that particular conversation anyway.  
  
Fortunately there were only a handful of people in the entire village who would take an interest in such a conversation and the two people involved in said conversation had already made sure that those people didn't visit this particular place very often. At the present moment only one of the two conspirators was present, waiting for her companion. This particular day she had foregone her usual attire for a much more nondescript orange T- shirt and dark shorts. Grumbling to herself she idly poked at a bowl of shrimp ramen that she had ordered a short while ago.  
  
"Ah... Yamanaka-san?" A soft voice pulled her out of the boredom she had been experiencing and caused her to turn and look at the speaker.  
  
"Hinata!" She exclaimed, "You took your time, didn't you? And how many times do I have to tell you to just call me 'Ino', it is my name after all!" The Hyuuga girl merely bowed her head and whispered a quick, yet polite, apology - which caused Ino to slap one hand against her forehead in exasperation. "And don't keep apologizing either! You need to grow a little backbone right?" When Hinata nodded, Ino continued, "Then you have to stop backsliding like that - speak a little louder, don't apologize if you don't have to and, most of all, don't let anyone push you around. Right?"  
  
The black-haired, white-eyed Genin blinked and nodded silently before sliding over and sitting on a stool next to Ino. "R-right." She agreed, "I'm so- no. No, I don't have to apologize do I?"  
  
Her blonde companion smiled and nodded, "Ha! Maybe you are improving more than I thought after all." She ginned and placed one arm around Hinata's shoulders in order to pull the quiet girl a little closer. "So..." Ino glanced around to make sure no-one was listening in on them before she continued, "Did you... you know?" The white-eyed girl nodded at the question. Ino just grinned and pressed a little further. "All of them? Even the pigs?"  
  
"Th-the dirtiest ones I could find yamana-... Ino." Came the reply, along with a slightly mischievous grin. "I even managed to find... well..." Hinata leaned nearer to Ino and whispered into her ear for a few moments. Suddenly Ino pulled away and stared at Hinata in shock.  
  
"No way!" She exclaimed, causing more than a few patrons of the ramen stand to glance at her for a moment before turning back to their own food and conversations. "How did you even manage to find one of them!?"  
  
"Not one, several of them." Hinata replied, causing Ino to pale somewhat. Admittedly the whole string of pranks had been Ino's idea originally - the plan being to maybe scare Temari away so that Hinata could swoop in and take Naruto for herself.  
  
Well. Alright, Hinata wasn't exactly the sort of person who would 'swoop in' and take anything, but at least Naruto would be promptly unattached and therefore there would still be a chance for Hinata to catch him for herself.  
  
But... this... This was possibly going a little further than Ino had expected.  
  
No. That wasn't quite right.  
  
It was, in fact, going quite a lot further than Ino had expected. Evidently, under that calm, shy and polite exterior, Hinata appeared to have one heck of a mean streak. Years of repressing her negative feelings were behind that no doubt.  
  
"Are... are you sure that's even safe?" Ino mumbled, somewhat weakly. "I mean... farm animals are one thing but those... aren't they a little too much?"  
  
Hinata grinned, a grin that made Ino slide away from the quiet girl. "No, not at all." She replied.  
  
For the first time since she had begun to hang around with Hinata, Ino wondered if making the girl more independent was actually a good idea...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto snarled in annoyance and pushed chakra into both his hands and feet as quickly as he could as soon as he felt them tingle with power he reached out and smacked them against a windowsill that he had managed to get himself within reach of. There was a dull crack followed by a bass explosion as Naruto discovered first hand the effect of trying to grab hold of something when one's hands were filled with way too much chakra for the object to support. The effect was somewhat like when he had trained in running up trees in the wave country, and Sasuke had shattered part of a tree trunk by using too much chakra in his feet. The only difference being that Naruto had, in panic, used way more chakra and had also hit the object he was trying to stick to at far to high a speed.  
  
As Naruto fell the last few floors towards the ground, he flung the two chunks of windowsill that he had snagged, moments before they promptly snapped off, to one side being careful to make sure that they would not hit anyone below.  
  
A female scream alerted him to the fact that he had been spotted and, regardless of what he did to stop the fall, he would be seen and recognized. Since he was going to get in trouble anyway, the blonde genin rationalized that he may as well save himself some of the pain of landing by hitting the water instead of the concrete and rock flooring around it.  
  
Thus it was that Tsunade was treated to the sight of an orange blur slamming into the hot spring pool next to the one she was in with enough force to send a plume of water up into the air, where it then soaked everyone around the pool. Her mind working quickly she glanced up to see a certain, familiar, white-haired man snigger in amusement at Naruto's predicament.  
  
"Ah!" Tsunade's gaze snapped downwards as she heard the sound of someone gasping for air as they surface - Naruto most likely. She began to rise from the water, prepared to defend Naruto from what evidently was a situation that wasn't his fault. As soon as she saw who had surfaced, she paused and blinked in confusion.  
  
"Gyaaaa..." In the middle of the pool a blonde haired girl floated, her legs and arms working hard to keep her from sinking under the weight of a waterlogged orange outfit. Naruto, with the sheer ingenuity of a super prankster, had managed to use his sexy no jutsu moments before the impact with the hot springs surface had forced the air from his, now her, lungs.  
  
There was a series of splashes around the pool as more than a few girls hopped into the water to drag 'that poor young woman' away from the danger of imminent drowning. Up until that point Tsunade had been convinced that Naruto would be rumbled the moment the women attempted to drag 'her' to the side of the pool.  
  
"O-ho." She whispered when what she had predicted failed to happen, "So he knows the advanced henge too? Well now, isn't he just full of surprises?" She grinned and sank a little deeper into the warm waters, not wanting the watching Jiraiya to notice her presence and flee.  
  
Not that it really mattered if he did of course, as she could just beat him senseless when their little group continued on the last stretch of their journey back to the leaf village in the morning.  
  
Smirking slightly she leant back, resting against a warm rock, and listened to what was going on just out of her sight.  
  
"Oh you poor, poor thing!" Squealed one woman as she assisted another in pulling off Naruto's shirt and draping a soft towel across his - or rather her - shoulders. One or two women blushed slightly or muttered amongst themselves when they saw that Naruto was obviously bra-less.  
  
"Just relax, perhaps you could tell us what happened?" One older woman, who had wandered off as Naruto was being pulled from the spring, asked as she returned with a small mug and a pot of steaming tea upon a plain tray. "Here, get some of this inside you, poor dear."  
  
Naruto nodded in acceptance and lifted one shaking hand to accept the mug before eventually bringing it to her lips and sipping at the hot, almost scalding, drink it contained. Inside her head, however, her mind was racing for a plausible explanation as to... what... happened...  
  
It was lucky that Naruto had an almost god-like poker face, otherwise his features would have been split by a grin that just promised vast amounts of mayhem. Instead of this, however, Naruto started to cry instead. "Th- there," She began, "There whu-whu-was a muh-mean man!"  
  
The moment she said those words the women around her erupted into angry muttering. The older woman patted Naruto on the shoulder and urged her to continue with her explanation. Slowly Naruto stammered and sobbed her way though her explanation, claiming to have seen Jiraiya peeping then tripping off the edge of the roof after trying to confront him and his evil lecherous ways.  
  
When she had finished her story, the collection of women all turned to glare up at the top of the building Naruto had fallen from. Unfortunately for him, Jiraiya had remained where he was to observed how Naruto would react to being dropped into a crowd of mostly naked women.  
  
Needless to say, this meant that the aforementioned collection of women had just spotted him.  
  
"Well," Spoke the old white haired man as he jumped from his peeping spot to the branches of a nearby tree then from there onto a different roof. "Crap" Below him the crowd of women surged out of the hot springs area, grabbing clothes and changing as the went through the changing rooms and finally chasing after the fleeing sennin as best the could. Whilst they weren't a serious danger to him, they would prove to be rather... tenacious in their pursuit.  
  
Naruto, meanwhile, merely smirked as the horde chased after his teacher.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Gods...  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
This repetition was really starting to get to her...  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Why did these damn training sessions all have to be the same!?  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
This was all she had been doing for the past week now, jump kicks - one of the most basic aerial Taijutsu techniques there was!  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
And her she was, performing them again and again under the supervision of her trainer, like some child at school learning to write kanji like some kind of repeat-y thing.  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Parrot. Yes, that was the word. Learning like a parrot, by just repeating the same thing over and over and over and...  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Look at him! Just look at him! That smug look he wore as he watched her train!  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Was he getting some kind of cheap entertainment out of this? Making her repeat basic moves hour upon hour upon hour?  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
"That was sloppy, bend your knee a bit more next time."  
  
Jump. Correct. Kick. Land.  
  
And now he was correcting her! The nerve!  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Why was he being so damned picky about her technique? Her kicks were just fine, hell they were perfect! They had to be! Mostly because she was, after all, a full-fledged Genin level ninja, not some child learning the basics!  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
Oh she'd show him. Him and that smug look of his. She'd show him... oh yes, she's show him good.  
  
Jump. Kick. Land.  
  
On the next one, yes, the next one, she'd kick him rather than the training post. That'd wipe the smugness from his face for sure!  
  
Jump. Spin. Kick.  
  
His hand flashed up, catching her leg with ease on his right forearm. He winced at the blow but wasted no movement as he slipped his hand around to grab hold of her leg and tug. She felt herself stop dead in mid air for a less than a second before she was suddenly pulled towards him - just in time to receive a fierce elbow to the gut that smashed her into the floor hard enough to knock the air from her lungs.  
  
Land. Gasp. Swear. Gasp. Curse. Gasp.  
  
"Training," he said then, "Is over for today. Go home Sabakuno-san, and please don't try that again."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Naruto," Came a slightly amused feminine voice. "Whilst I have no doubts as to who is to blame for this, there were several much easier ways to get away without being identified."  
  
The blonde boy, currently a girl covered only by a towel and holding a steaming mug of tea, froze in place. "O-Old lady Tsunade!"  
  
"Who's the old lady?" Tsunade muttered to herself as she rose from the hot spring she had been hiding in, grabbing a towel and holding it out to preserve her modesty as she did so. "Anyway, turn around."  
  
"Huh?" Naruto stared at Tsunade in confusion for a moment before comprehension settled into his mind. "Oh!" Quickly he spun around and, more than that, slapped his free hand over his eyes. "I'm sorry!" He yelled, "I wasn't loo-"A hand reached around and placed one finger against his lips, effectively quieting him almost instantly.  
  
"I know, Naruto, I know." Tsunade laughed lightly as she withdrew her hand. "I saw how you were trying not to look at any girls other than those that were covered." There was a rustling sound for a few moments before Tsunade spoke again. "I must say, I'm surprised that someone your age is so... so... moralistic. Oh, you can turn around now."  
  
"Mora- huh?" Naruto turned, snatching his shirt from where it sat on a nearby rock. Frowning at how wet it felt, the boy disguised as a girl began to wring some of the water from the thick cloth. "I don't get it." He grumbled, his face twisted up in a look of concentration as he squeezed out the water.  
  
"I thought you might not," Murmured the older lady. "Which, I guess, is the whole problem."  
  
"Problem!?" Naruto glared at Tsunade. "I don't have a problem!" The boy, turned girl, glared in the direction Jiraiya had fled. "Unlike some people."  
  
Smiling, Tsunade placed one hand on Naruto's head. "Poor child," She murmured, "You really don't have a clue do you?" Also looking out over where Jiraiya had run off, the newly decided fifth hokage, the Godaime, sighed. "Naruto," She began, "What do you know about... well... That is to say... Now, you know when a man and a woman get together..."  
  
The blonde haired genin stared at the woman in confusion. "Huh?"  
  
"I see," Sighed the legendary medic, "That this could take some time."  
  
"Man and woman... man and woman..." Naruto frowned, before suddenly pointing at Tsunade. "Ah!" He yelled, "You mean like dates and stuff?"  
  
"Yes, that's right. Dating and romance." Answered the taller of the two, as the both walked into what turned out to be a small changing room at the edge of the fenced-off hot springs area. "Wait outside." She ordered, ushering Naruto through the room and out the outer exit.  
  
About to begin changing, Tsunade paused in realization and slid across to the outer door. "And put your shirt on!" She hissed, nodding to herself when she heard the rustling of cloth on the other side of the door.  
  
By the time she had finished dressing and left the changing rooms, Naruto had already released his transformation. The boy was, when Tsunade spotted him, hopping from one foot to another in an effort to keep warm - or maybe he was just playing some little game with himself to keep amused. Whatever the reason, he soon stopped and fell into place behind Tsunade as she stalked her way back towards the inn they were staying in for the night.  
  
"So, Naruto..." She asked as they walked. "Apparently I have to explain something important to you."  
  
Instantly the short genin perked up, his movements becoming bouncier while his face shone with an ear-to-ear grin. "What? What? Is it a secret? A new technique? I bet someone as old as y-"  
  
Tsunade's knuckles bounced off of his head, leaving him to rub his now hurting crown. "I'm not old." She growled, crossing her arms under her rather ample bosom and scowling at the world around her.  
  
"Ah..." Naruto rubbed at his head, thankful that it was so solid. "Sorry..." Ordinarily he wouldn't have apologized but, well, if Jiraiya was scared of her then it meant he himself had every right to be scared of what Tsunade would do if he annoyed her too much.  
  
"A new technique?" Tsunade, despite her annoyance at being called old, couldn't help but smirk at what, to Naruto, seemed to be some sort of private joke. "Not really, but I suppose it could lead to some new techniques..." When Naruto cheered, she dropped her voice far below a whisper. "Not that they'd be anything like what you may be expecting of course..."  
  
Eventually Naruto calmed down until he was merely bubbling with excitement, rather than exploding with it. This was, Tsunade decided, probably about as calm as the boy was going to get and, as such, the best time to carry on with her speech.  
  
"What I have to tell you is, really, something that most boys, and often girls, get told when they're a little older than you are now. Then again, some are told earlier." The tall woman sighed, "You see Naruto, this is normally something their parents explain to them."  
  
She winced when she saw the look that passed over Naruto's face and the way he barely missed his step and stumbled ever so slightly when his body stiffened. "... oh..." His voice was small, his bubbly expression and movement all gone now. Instead he slouched along, his feet dragging against the cobbled street floor. "... I see."  
  
Tsunade watched as Naruto slouched along and resisted, barely, the urge to sweep him up into a hug. Instead she decided to press on with what she had to, somehow, try to explain. "Naruto, do you by any chance have..." She paused for a moment before continuing. "No, actually, I'll make it easier to answer. Naruto, is there a girl you like?"  
  
The change in Naruto was almost instantaneous, and rather spectacular too. In less than the blink of an eye his face went red with embarrassment, his movements became nervous and fidgety and he kept glancing around him, almost as if he expected someone to jump out and yell 'surprise!'  
  
"Ah, there is. Isn't there?" Pressed the older woman, "Care to tell?"  
  
Naruto fidgeted, his fingers finding their way to the base of his jacket and beginning to just fiddle with the thick cloth - tugging at it, stretching it out, wrapping it around his hand - just... fidgeting really. "Uhm..." He mumbled, "Th-there's Sakura-chan..." Naruto bit his lower lip and looked around, as if trying to find an escape route.  
  
"And the sand girl, Temako? Temami?" Tsunade knew who Temari was, but acting as if she didn't know her name made it seem as if she had only heard it in passing – rather than being informed in detail about it by Jiraiya a few days ago.  
  
"Temari." Came the rather annoyed correction. "Her name is Temari."  
  
"Oh? Is that it?" The legendary kunoichi asked, sounding particularly indifferent to the girl's name. "So what do you think of her then, this Temari?"  
  
Naruto slowed his pace and, after a few steps, stopped walking altogether. "I..." He began, his voice cracking ever so slightly. "uhm..." Naruto gulped. "She's... pretty?" He offered, not exactly sure of what he was trying to say. "And... uhm... She's nice, and... ah..."  
  
Noticing that Naruto was no longer following her, Tsunade halted and turned to look at the much younger boy. "I take it that you like her then? Maybe even you have a thing for her?" She asked, smirking slightly at the way Naruto stumbled over his words while trying to explain – without embarrassing himself – what he thought.  
  
"... yes..." Naruto whispered, his voice sounding small and weak.  
  
"Sooooo..." As the kunoichi drew out the 'o' sound, Naruto seemed to get progressively smaller – no doubt expecting an insult or a rebuttal for what he had just admitted. "Have you two been on a date yet?"  
  
The blonde genin looked around, then made a few waving motions with his hands, indicating that he didn't want anyone to hear what he was going to say. Raising an eyebrow at his actions, the taller woman stepped over to him and leant down close so that he could speak much quieter and still be heard by her.  
  
"No..." He whispered, "But... we... there was..." At that point he apparently changed his mind and went silent once more before speaking up again in a quiet voice. "Tsunade-oneesan..."  
  
Almost at once Naruto felt himself being swept up into a hug of, to put it bluntly, freakish strength. "Oneesan!?" Tsunade practically giggled with delight that Naruto had just used a term that was usually reserved for older sisters, or women that one considered to be like an older sister. Since she was taller than the young Genin, the end result was that the poor boy was swung to and fro almost a foot above the ground. "Oh! I'm so happy that you see me as an older sister!" Naruto, however, had nothing much to say since his face was now buried between Tsunade's most 'visible' attributes. Fortunately for him, however, he felt the older woman's grip loosen enough for him to lean his head back enough to actually breathe.  
  
Suddenly the poor boy felt the unforgiving touch of gravity about his person as Tsunade let go, leaving him to fall to the floor like a sack of potatoes. "What the he-"he began to yell, but was cut off as Tsunade hoisted him off the floor and happily deposited him, standing, back onto it.  
  
Before he had a chance to yell again, the legendary kunoichi placed one finger against his lips. "You've never been on a date, have you?" She asked, "But you have done something. I can tell by the way that got all nervous like that." Smiling slightly, the well-endowed woman patted the smaller boy on the head. "A kiss was all I suspect, Jiraiya seemed to think you'd know about that much at least."  
  
"Th-that much?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide and his legs feeling more than a little like jelly. Frankly he was beginning to get rather confused and being swung around like a rag doll a few moments ago hadn't exactly helped matters much either.  
  
"Naruto, do you know what a man and a woman, or in your case a boy and a girl, do when they love each other?" At the question posed by Tsunade, Naruto scrunched up his face in confusion.  
  
"They... go on dates?" He hazarded. When he saw Tsunade's face fall slightly, he guessed that perhaps this wasn't quite the right answer. Okay then, so what else did he know couples did with each other? Well, apart from the obvious... then again, maybe Tsunade was after the obvious answer? She was, after all, trying to find out what he knew about something so maybe that was what she wanted. Taking a slight breath, Naruto decided to have a second guess. "They... kiss?"  
  
"Then what happens?" Tsunade pressed, "They date, they kiss, then what, what else do couples do?"  
  
This time Naruto reacted in a way that hinted at a vague sort of understanding. "Ah!" He shouted, hopping up from where he sat. "I think I know this one!"  
  
The legendary medic merely raised one eyebrow at this. "Oh? So what happens then? What happens after a date and a kiss?" She asked, hoping that Naruto's answer would indicate that he knew more than he had let on about the subject.  
  
Naruto grinned. "A second date!"  
  
Needless to say, when she heard Naruto's guess, Tsunade could think of no suitable reply other than to curse softly under her breath.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Temari yawned and scowled. This wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do without looking rather daft, but frankly Temari couldn't care less. She was tired, her legs hurt from repeated kicks, her abdomen hurt from being elbowed and the rest of her hurt from being slammed into the ground so hard.  
  
That aside, she had managed to prove her intellectual superiority over that incompetent Haruno girl! Gods, had she studied to be that... that... brainless or was it just something she had been born into?  
  
Feh. It wasn't like it really mattered anyway. Eventually her brother Gaara would come to his senses and massacre the Sand village council. Then she'd be recalled out of this ludicrous arrangement and she'd never have to... to...  
  
No. That was stupid thinking. Strong Gaara may be, but even he would have to bow to the sheer combined power of the entire Sand council. Besides, crazed killer he may have been, but he was also loyal like no other. No, there was no chance that she'd be recalled.  
  
Not that she was entirely sure she wanted to be...  
  
The village was, after all, a rather nice place really. She longed for the desert but, frankly, there was a lot to be said for being able to wake up without having to worry about the odd scorpion or desert-snake having made its way into one's bed overnight. It didn't happen often, but it was still something that did vaguely worry her. If she was going to die, she'd much rather die in combat than to die of poison after being stung or bitten whilst nearly naked in bed in the morning. At least here all she had to worry about were... insects.  
  
Good gods, she'd only barely been able to keep her composure when she had discovered of the existence of the Aburame clan during the chuunin exams. After she'd retired to where her team had been staying, however, she had indulged herself in a good lengthy session of freaking out and throwing up. Hell, she hadn't been able to sleep properly for almost a week after returning to the Sand village, the mental images of Shino – insects crawling from under his skin – were enough to make her wake in a cold sweat from nightmares every single time she tried to sleep.  
  
It was, perhaps, one of the few times that she felt as murderous as Gaara had been prior to the chuunin exam. Still, a few easy missions – body- guarding and bandit hunting mostly – had let her work off her anger in the simplest way she knew, by reducing weak opponents to large lumps of bloodied flesh.  
  
Actually, that was something she really didn't like about the village – the lack of killing. Then again, it wasn't like they could trust her to go out on a mission without a jounin to keep an eye on her movements but still... a good days bandit-hunting would really be so damn stress-relieving right now!  
  
Sighing to herself, Temari shook her head to clear it of the murderous thoughts that were dancing across her mind. Kneeling down she slipped her fingers into a special pocket secreted just inside her shoe – the left one, the one with the key in it, not the right one which held a small blade instead. Plucking the key from it's hiding place Temari rose and smoothly slotted it into the small lock that was all that prevented just anyone from getting into Naruto's home while he was away.  
  
As the door swung open the first thing that hit her was the smell. Quite an unforgettable smell actually. A mix of straw and dung and... well... Animals.  
  
Farm animals no less.  
  
Wandering around on a floor which someone had covered with a layer of straw and, naturally, manure.  
  
Evidently this was yet another prank pulled on her by the mystery person who'd pulled the previous ones – the swamp mud and the hair dye – only this time he or she had gone a little too far. Covering her with mud, replacing a bottle of shampoo with dye even as she bought it – those things were okay. Annoying, but they weren't altogether too bad.  
  
Well. Okay, they were too bad, but when they were compared to this they were practically nothing. After all, in the previous two times the pranks had been directed at her, this time the pranker had gone as far as breaking into Naruto's, not her own, but Naruto's home and filling it with animals and dung. Animals that were, at present, happily making the mess even worse than it already had been.  
  
Kicking a clucking chicken out of her way, and quite possibly killing it in the process, Temari swept through the building in order to find out just how bad things were. As she stepped into the kitchen area she had only a screeching squeal of anger to warn her before what appeared to be a wild boar attempted to drive it's tusks into her body. With a reaction speed bought about by a combination of both anger and fear for her life, since such an animal could kill a person with ease, Temari hopped into the air and placed one hand on the charging brute's back in order to vault herself over it.  
  
As she vaulted she turned in mid air to face the back of the, now slightly confused, animal and whipped one arm out – launching a kunai into the back of the beasts skull. The dull crunching sound told her that the weapon had pierced it's skull and that, if not dead already, it would be dead in a moment or two. Landing lightly, Temari grimaced at the corpse of the boar.  
  
"Well," She murmured, "At least we can eat it."  
  
A scrabbling sound from behind caused her to turn and stare at what appeared to be another wild pig, this one a sow and thus less likely to try to kill her. Ignoring it, Temari slipped out of the kitchen and poked her head into one of the other downstairs rooms. Since nothing attacked her the moment she did so, she slipped inside and shut the door behind her. It would not, after all, do to let potential food escape the house before she killed it. The sound of deep breathing filled the room, mostly due to the sleeping ox that sat upon an old rug in the center of the room.  
  
Nodding to herself, the sand genin slipped out of the room – again making sure she shut the door – and headed upstairs. The ox had made a mess and the wild boar had attacked her. Both of these, Temari assumed, were really to annoy her – not to actually harm her, what would be likely to harm her would be what, if anything, the person responsible could have placed in her room.  
  
For Temari had already noticed that, apart from a bit of straw and mud, no real damage had been done to the rooms that contained Naruto's belongings. This obviously meant that whoever had done it was willing to go as far as damaging the house, but didn't want to damage anything Naruto placed any value on.  
  
In fact... now that she thought about it... These pranks only really started when word of Naruto's engagement to her had leaked out, hadn't they? Given this fact, could it be possible that the perpetrator wasn't against herself personally, but against the fact that she was engaged to Naruto?  
  
Was someone, perhaps, trying to make her leave in order to render the engagement voided? Possibly so that they could have Naruto to themselves?  
  
Pushing her theorizing aside, Temari approached the door to her room and stopped dead. Growing up as all sand-nin did, paranoid, had taught her more than a few useful things. For a start it taught her to always make sure she could tell if anyone had intruded into her private places, her room for example. Today such paranoia paid off as, in the bottom corner of her door, she had affixed a single one of her hairs so that it bridged the gap between the door and the doorframe. Looking closely it was obvious that the hair had been snapped in two, proof that someone had opened the door without realizing that this particular little trick had been in use.  
  
So, then, someone had been in her room. Obviously it must have been the same person who had broken into and bought animals into the rest of the house. This, of course, left just one nasty little thought in Temari's mind.  
  
What, exactly, had this intruder done in her room?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Oh." Naruto sat next to Tsunade on the edge of a simple little bed of the kind found in every room in this particular inn. The expression on his face was a mix of interest and the sort of look usually found on small stunned rabbits. "So... babies come from mommies?" He asked, his voice sounding like that of a little child's.  
  
"Well," Murmured Shizune, who had been hanging around in a small café next to the inn and, when she had seen Tsunade and Naruto returning, had decided to tag along with them into the inn and up to their rooms. "Where else did you think they would come from Naruto-kun?"  
  
The genin frowned, "Ah..." he began, "I always thought they were found inside watermelons or something."  
  
The room went silent as one medical-nin and one medical legend both stared at Naruto as if he were from a different world. Finally, in an almost dreamlike voice – bought about by the way her train of thought had hit the wall known as Naruto – Tsunade asked a question she would dread asking for years to come. "Why... why do you think that?"  
  
"It's obvious!" Naruto half-yelled, "Mommies can't possibly grow that fat so quickly! So they must be keeping the watermelon under their clothes to keep it warm!"  
  
Tsunade's eye twitched slightly for a moment before, suddenly, she fell backwards onto the bed, her legs kicking up into the air, laughing like a hyena. "Ahaha! That's brilliant!" She exclaimed, in between fits of laughing and giggling. Opposite her, Shizune also allowed herself a small smirk as she reached down to grab one of the jackets Tsunade had damaged in her fight with Orochimaru a few days before.  
  
"Trust us Naruto-kun," She whispered whilst she started work on sewing up some of the rips and tears in the jacket. "Babies come from mothers, not from watermelons."  
  
"Aha!" Naruto jumped to his feet and pointed at Shizune. "If babies come from mommies, then how come they get so fat! No-one grows that fat that quickly! They have to be hiding something under their clothes!" Then he paused and raised scratched his chin with the hand he had used to point at Shizune with. "Or maybe they lay eggs, like chickens, and then they keep the eggs under their clothes... That could work..."  
  
Giggling softly, the legendary medic reached up with one arm, grabbed Naruto by the base of his shirt and tugged him back down onto the bed. Taking a deep breath in order to, hopefully, calm her giggling, Tsunade pulled herself back into a sitting position and wrapped an arm around Naruto's shoulders.  
  
"Babies grow inside their mothers, that's why they get 'fat'. It's because the growing baby takes up a lot of space inside the mothers abdomen." She smiled and placed a finger to the younger boys lips. "Before you say it, the babies get there after a girl and a guy who love each other go into their bedroom together."  
  
Using both hands, Naruto could only barely move Tsunade's arm far enough away to prevent her finger from covering his lips. "What... what happens after they go into their bedroom?" Naruto asked, glaring at the busty woman.  
  
"Ah..." Shizune lifted her head from her sewing and laughed nervously. "I... think that's something you'll find out when you get there, right Tsunade- sama?"  
  
"Hah! A little fumbling around is probably the best way to learn." Tsunade grinned at Naruto. "Just remember, she'll probably know more about it than you do, so listen to what she say, okay?"  
  
Naruto opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off as the window to the room slammed open and a rather irritated white-haired figure slid inside. The boy glared at the figure for a moment, before deciding that it couldn't hurt much to take the opportunity to insult the man. "Oi! Pervert-sennin! Were those girls too much for you?"  
  
Jiraiya's head whipped around to glare at the boy. "That," he growled, "Wasn't playing fair."  
  
"Pff, and since when did you ever play fair Jiraiya? As I understand it, you pushed him into the spring to begin with." Tsunade snorted in annoyance as she glared at her once team-mate. "You deserve every bruise you got from those girls,"  
  
"Hah!" The self proclaimed 'super pervert' laughed a short, almost mocking, laugh. "Do you really think I even let them get near enough to hit me? I am the legendary toad sennin you know!"  
  
"I know," whispered the blonde woman. "Which gives me so much more satisfaction when I do this." As she spoke, she happily poked Jiraiya in the side - almost immediately the man collapsed upon the floor, twitching ever so often. "You're not the only legendary ninja Jiraiya, someday you and your ego may even remember that."  
  
Staring at the twitching pile that was Jiraiya, Naruto frowned in thought. It was pretty obvious that Tsunade had used some incredible technique to disable him but... well, that wasn't what he was thinking about.  
  
"You know," He began at last, "Like that, he can't keep running away from that crowd of woman, can he?"  
  
Jiraiya blinked. Then his eyes widened as he realized just what, exactly, Naruto was suggesting. "Aheh, well, there's no need to go that far... right?" he mumbled, his face resting against the carpeted floor.  
  
"Actually," Murmured Tsunade, "I think there is." She finished as she stood up and lifted Jiraiya into the air with one hand. "Happy landings?"  
  
With that, she took a step towards the window turned slightly and launched the legendary sennin out into the evening sky. "We'll see you tomorrow!" Yelled Naruto, as he watched his sometimes-sensei's landing attract the crowd of women who had been chasing him earlier.  
  
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune spoke up after a while, "I really think you should shut the window, so his screams of pain don't keep us awake all night."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Slipping a kunai out of on of the many hiding places about her person, Temari carefully reached out to the door to her room with her free hand. Slowly she began to open the door, stopping once it had been opened just enough for her too peek into the room. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she pushed the door open a little more, giving herself a slightly wider angle of vision.  
  
Still there was nothing odd in the room. How... strange.  
  
Snarling to herself Temari slammed the door open the rest of the way and threw herself to one side as a small yellow and orange blur came shooting out of the room. The moment she landed on the floor she rolled to one side, just in time to see the yellow and orange animal – one that appeared to be some kind of really angry wildcat – land claws first where her head had just been. Slamming one hand on the ground, Temari pivoted herself on it and spun around, swinging her legs out in a sweeping kick that barely clipped the animal in the side.  
  
The cat, now angered due to the pain from the kick, hissed furiously and pounced, claws first. There was a wet slicing sound and a squeal of feline pain as Temari rolled to bring her other hand, with the kunai it held, up into the flight path of the feline. Even as the animal died, her kunai in it's belly, it's fore and hind claws scrabbled around furiously, scratching and tearing small chunks of flesh from the arm that held it aloft. Grimacing in pain, Temari refused to let the furious beast down, knowing that should she do so it still had more than enough life left in it to make a pretty good attempt at attacking her neck. Admittedly it was dying but, well, it had been a while since Temari had seriously watched anything die.  
  
She had been only six or seven the first time, when she had watched as her father, the Kazekage, executed a traitor in full view of everyone. Though she hadn't much liked it at the time, she slowly grew somewhat desensitized as she watched her father perform execution after execution. Being the daughter of the Kazekage and, at the time, a potential heir, she had been pretty much forced to watch them by a mix of tradition and orders from her father.  
  
A few years later she was ten, her youngest brother – Gaara – had just turned seven when the three children of the Kazekage – herself, Gaara and her other brother Kankuro – were sent on a mission.  
  
She'd never forget that mission, ever. Since, after all, that had been when she had killed someone for the first time.  
  
He had been some pathetic bandit, a mere inconvenience to any ninja, even one as young as herself. She had watched, then, as the man died from a kunai she had embedded in his neck – even after he had pleaded for mercy. Mercy that was, after all, something a Sand-nin was not expected to give.  
  
The way his breathing had become all damp, like he was drowning. Which, in fact he was, drowning in his own blood at least.  
  
The tiny glimmer of life in his eyes that slowly faded even as she watched.  
  
Temari had killed for the first time then.  
  
And, frankly, she found it to be quite enjoyable.  
  
The wet feeling of blood running down her arm bought the, currently brown- haired, genin back from the dreamlike memories she had been thinking about. The wildcat, now dead, hung limply over her arm and it was it's blood, still oozing from where her kunai had impaled it, that was running down her arm. Silently she berated herself for missing her favorite part, watching the spark of life fade away from the eyes of her victim. It was then that, albeit somewhat dimly, she realized that she'd have to clean up all the mess that filled the house, as well as get rid of the few rather more tame animals that were still around.  
  
Ah. Sod it all. She could clean up tomorrow, after she'd washed up and had a good nights sleep.  
  
Then, once the house was clean again, she'd have to deal with the real issue at hand. Namely, finding out who was responsible and kicking their teeth in.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Naruto bounced happily as he peered through Jiraiya's telescope at the familiar gate in the far distance. It would be about a day or two of walking before they'd be standing at the bottom of those giant wooden doors.  
  
Currently, the four of them, Naruto, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune, were passing through a small trading town that sat atop a cliff they were going to be walking down for the most of the afternoon. Surprisingly they had made good time – after Tsunade had healed the multiple bruises Jiraiya had picked up the night before – and had actually arrived at the trading town earlier than they had planned.  
  
Given this, Jiraiya and Tsunade had wandered off to find a bar – or a small gambling place – whilst leaving Naruto and Shizune to their own devices. Naruto, his froggy wallet filled to bursting once more, peered into dusty shop windows and grimly searched through the contents of various market stalls.  
  
"Ah, Naruto-kun?" Asked Shizune, as they passed what was the seventh stall Naruto had searched thus far. "What, exactly, are you looking for?"  
  
"Mmph." The genin didn't reply, but instead dug around in a pile of what appeared to be large wood and metal blocks. "'s not one here either." He muttered, leaving that particular stall and moving onto the next in line. A few minutes rummaging around in this new pile of stuff produced much the same results as all the previous stalls had produced – or, in other words, nothing that he was after.  
  
"Naruto-kun, please tell me what you're looking for?" Suggested Shizune as she placed one hand on the boy's shoulder. "Then maybe I can help."  
  
Turning to face the older woman, Naruto seemed like he was going to reply to her when he suddenly stopped dead mid turn. Without a word the young genin practically vanished due to the speed at which he dashed off in the direction of what he had seen. Shizune followed, at a much more leisurely pace and caught up with the boy just as he handed his wallet over to a bearded old craftsman in exchange for a large bundle of... Well, Shizune wasn't sure what it was exactly, but it looked particularly heavy and was wrapped in a thick paper covering. Carrying the package over one shoulder Naruto grinned happily and looked at Shizune.  
  
"Oi! Oi!" he exclaimed, "Where'd Ero-sennin and old lady Tsunade go?"  
  
Shizune frowned. "Jiraiya-san and Tsunade-sama are... uh... entertaining themselves."  
  
The blonde genin nodded. "They went to get drunk, huh?"  
  
"Ah..." The taller woman blushed ever so slightly in embarrassment. "I think they probably did, Naruto-kun." Glancing at Naruto's package, she frowned slightly. "So, are you going to tell me what you spent so much money on?"  
  
Naruto smiled. "It's a present." He stated, "A present, for someone I like."  
  
He grinned, his face lighting up like a one million watt bulb. "Okay?"  
  
Chapter 13 – ended.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAA!  
  
Good gods. Almost two months to do this. Now, I just hope you think it was worth the wait ^-^  
  
So... next time in 'Betrothal' !  
  
Naruto returns to the village! Stuff happens! ... uhh... more stuff happens!  
  
. and... ah... Sakura will get one heck of a surprise!  
  
Now, lemme sleep x.x  
  
- Lackey H, needing sleep after this. 


	14. Talks

Betrothal  
  
A Naruto fanfiction. By Lackey H  
  
Chapter 14 – Talks  
  
The jounin exam had begun. Well, the first segment of it at least. In truth, Iruka was feeling more than a little overwhelmed about it all, after being assigned to a four-person team – led by an existing rookie jounin – they were to perform and complete a special A-rank mission by themselves.  
  
Granted it wasn't a real A-rank mission, it was merely an exercise set up to be as difficult as a particularly difficult A-rank. With a real possibility of death no less.  
  
Hopping from branch to branch, easily keeping pace with his team, Iruka vaguely pondered why he had suddenly decided to try and become a jounin again. Granted, he knew the reasons, but that didn't tell him why those reasons were the reasons he chose to take it. An overly confusing subject really.  
  
As a jounin he'd have access to more of the villages communal scrolls, including some that had been 'acquired' from other villages. But techniques had never been really high on his priorities before, so that wasn't much of a reason.  
  
There was the simple fact that jounin got paid more for the work they did, though this was mainly because they often performed much more difficult missions. Iruka, however, didn't exactly plan on doing all that many A-rank missions, so that wasn't a really good reason either.  
  
Students... Now there was a particularly good reason. As a jounin, even a rookie, he would be allowed to apply for the position of Genin instructor, the same position that bastard Kakashi held over Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Gods how he'd been annoyed by the copy-ninja's actions in regards to Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke, eh, he wasn't as concerned about Sasuke since that boy was able to take care of himself without much trouble. Or at least so he had thought at the time anyway.  
  
Sakura. He'd been worried about that pink-haired girl due to her, to be honest, distinct lack or any special ability. Granted, she was smart, but there were many ninja who were as smart as she was – or smarter as Shikamaru had proven – so that wasn't much of a benefit. Her genjutsu was above average, which again wasn't much to gloat about since her ninjutsu was far below average – almost as bad as Naruto's had been. Well, except for the basics anyway.  
  
Iruka frowned as he hopped to one side and continued moving forwards. Sakura had always been a girl to do everything she had been told to do perfectly but, well, she never seemed to take much initiative herself. If she'd just go and learn something she wanted to learn for her own sake! That would be a grand step in the direction that would lead to her becoming a most admirable ninja! Unfortunately Kakashi, as good a teacher as he claimed to be, apparently missed that important observation about Sakura. Then again, given all the time he spent on Sasuke, to the exclusion of the other two, it was hardly surprising.  
  
... Arrogant bastard.  
  
Kakashi might be a damn good jounin but, frankly, he was a really crappy teacher. Not that he really taught much as he had kept getting out of having to actually teach anyone by failing every previous student.  
  
So, not only arrogant, but he was a lazy bastard too.  
  
Then, of course, there was Naruto. As Iruka had heard it, his one time student had gone off and found himself a different teacher. Since finding this teacher, he had been told, Naruto's growth had been incredible – a far cry to the slow going he had when learning under Kakashi.  
  
As far as Iruka was concerned, this was yet more proof that Kakashi shouldn't be allowed to teach again.  
  
Of course, he was a super genius, it was almost unthinkable that anyone would deny him if he asked for an instructor position again.  
  
When he got right down to it, Iruka really wanted to be a Jounin so that he could at least hope to prevent Kakashi from teaching ever again. Probably he'd have to become the best damn jounin instructor around before he could manage that though.  
  
Really, Kakashi was an Arrogant, Lazy and incredibly Irritating bastard.  
  
And Iruka was so going to enjoy putting him in his place. Maybe not now, nor in the immediate future, but definitely some day. Oh yes... someday.  
  
It had taken Temari the better part of the day to clean out the Uzumaki home. The dung and straw had been shoveled out into a pile in the plot of land just behind the house. She didn't know if it belonged to Naruto or not and, frankly, she couldn't care less if it didn't anyway. Currently, along with the dung, a selection of quite badly mangled corpses were also arrayed around the area. The pigs and boar, having been slaughtered and cleaned, were hanging up waiting to be butchered. The wildcat had been slung onto a trash heap and the Ox... well. Temari had needed something to take her anger out on that morning and the Ox had just been the first thing she had found upon which to take it out on.  
  
Currently it was scattered, in several pieces, upon the same heap the dead wildcat was on.  
  
All in all, a rather gruesome bit of cleaning up really. Luckily no-one would notice since she was planning on setting fire to the lot as, really, no-one in their right mind would want to transport such... stuff. Even to a proper trash-collection area – namely the Aburame breeding pit, in which countless hundreds of bugs would reduce pretty much any waste into bugfood. Or alternatively the organic stuff could have gone to the Yamanaka flower shop, where it would be composted out back into mulch for the plants to grow in.  
  
At least no-one could say that the leaf village didn't recycle their waste...  
  
Not that Temari cared, since she was pretty much dead set on setting fire to the trash-heap as a final act of vengeance on the animals that she had already mutilated. Besides, a nice bonfire would keep her warm whilst she exercised nearby.  
  
Then again... If he was going to be coming along, he might take exception to the burning. That would be particularly bad as he was the only person who had, thus far, agreed to give her any help in training.  
  
Even if the bastard did keep making her perform the same damn kick over and over and over...  
  
Still, at least she'd have something to show off with the next time she got into a fight. Hah, Naruto would be surprised when he saw what she had learnt...  
  
Now why did she think of that? She wasn't training to show off to Naruto. oh no.  
  
No, no, no, no.  
  
Definitely not.  
  
Well. Maybe a little.  
  
He was the strongest person she knew after all, it would be a rare chance to show off to him.  
  
Then again... Strong enough to beat Gaara he may have been, but Naruto didn't exactly seem particularly up on things. He was somewhat slow, lovable, but slow.  
  
Lovable?  
  
Yes. Yes he was. And she had kissed him too.  
  
She'd never kissed a guy before.  
  
Never had the chance. Back in the Sand village, the guys - and girls - ran at the very sight of her.  
  
No-one, after all, wanted anything to do with anyone related to Gaara. But Naruto, he didn't care about Gaara. He wasn't afraid.  
  
He... wasn't afraid.  
  
Temari blinked as someone tapped her on the shoulder.  
  
"Sabakuno-san?" Came the voice of her 'instructor', "Are you alright? You've been standing there for almost half an hour now."  
  
Half an hour? She'd been standing there, sunk in her thoughts, for half an hour!? Damn, she'd never done anything like that before.  
  
"I guess," She whispered, "I guess I'm doing a lot of things I've never done before." Pivoting on one foot, she turned to face her Taijutsu instructor - who was looking somewhat nervously at the pile of trash and mutilated animals nearby.  
  
"... Bad day?" He ventured after a while.  
  
Temari just smirked in a superior way, "It's getting better." She stated, "Now lets get this over with."  
  
Tsunade smirked as Naruto bounced along by her side. The boy, as annoying as he could be at times, had grown on her as they had journeyed towards the village of the Leaf. Currently he was describing the sights and sounds of the village - along with a variety of people he wanted her to meet.  
  
"So, so, Sakura-chan is nice, but she's been really weird lately - I think she was training or something 'cause I caught her falling asleep whilst Kakashi-sensei was explaining a mission to us!" The boy babbled, before crossing his arms and pouting indignantly. "Not that it was a very good mission," he continued, "we had to baby-sit a house full of kids all day! I thought Temari-san was gonna kill someone when one of 'em managed to pour grape juice in her hair!"  
  
"Temari," Tsunade murmured, "The sand girl... She may have had a hard time whilst you were away."  
  
"Huh?" Naruto looked up at Tsunade, confusion clearly evident in his eyes. "Why?"  
  
The legendary medic shrugged. "She's a Sand in the middle of the Leaf, she's an outsider. Not many people will be willing to trust her at all - not now, not ever." The woman frowned and glared in the direction of the village, which now was close enough to barely make out the guards atop the giant main gates. "That's one of the biggest problems with inter-village treaty marriages, no-one trusts the person that's sent into the village. So they usually end up being attacked, verbally and physically. Many of them end up leaving or being killed - both actions which dissolve the treaty the marriage is meant to seal."  
  
"And then the war begins." Added Jiraiya, his deep voice cutting off whatever reply Naruto had. "Since the girl in question is related to, well, that boy..."  
  
It was clear to Naruto that when Jiraiya said 'that boy' he had meant Gaara.  
  
"... if she should die, I have no doubt that he, if not the entire village, will attack in revenge. Such an attack... Well, that's something the leaf just can't possibly survive right now." As he talked, the old pervert failed to notice that Naruto had stopped walking and was now lagging behind slightly.  
  
The sound of something heavy slamming into the ground caused the three adults, Tsunade, Shizune and Jiraiya, to turn around and look at the motionless boy.  
  
"Gaara wouldn't have to bother." Naruto growled. One hand was clenched into a claw-like position, the other rested upon the top of the package he had been carrying which, now, was rammed into the ground like a spear. "'cuz if anyone hurts her, I'll kill them myself!"  
  
Both Tsunade and Shizune smiled slightly - they may have been highly trained kunoichi, able to kill without hesitation, but even they had a soft spot for a good bit of romance. And what was more romantic than a guy swearing to have vengeance on anyone who dared hurt his fiancee? ... Quite a few things actually, but then again, these particular romance-lovers were kunoichi and kunoichi in general tended to have weird ideas about this sort of thing.  
  
Temari's foot lashed out to hit her tutor's neck with almost perfect precision. 'Almost' being the operative word as, unfortunately, she was the barest fraction of an inch off. To her tutor, however, this miniscule little mistake could have easily been considered the equivalent of Temari missing him entirely. Of course, with what he was teaching her, such a tiny flaw in her technique could be dangerous and, thusly, this mistake had to be punished.  
  
Leaning backwards and to one side, Temari's tutor looked almost as if he had no spine - what with the fact that he had just bent backwards at the waist. Temari didn't have a chance to be impressed by this incredible feat of flexibility as her foot barely skimmed past in front of her tutor's throat. She knew that, unless she did something, she would be wide open for whatever attack her tutor threw in retaliation.  
  
Well. Time to get creative then.  
  
It was difficult, but she figured that she had enough momentum to maybe...  
  
Before her tutor knew what was happening, Temari had launched herself into the air, lashing out to smash her tutors shoulder with the heel of her other foot. She wasn't, however, done there. Still spinning in mid-air, Temari was able to make not one, not two, but three more consecutive spinning kicks before she was forced to land.  
  
Wait.  
  
Had she just...?  
  
Temari paused in stunned shock for a moment before a swift blow to the back of her head sent her sprawling forwards. Even as she picked herself up off of the floor, her tutor felt the need to make a comment on the situation.  
  
"Naaa... Sabakuno-san, keep your mind on the fight. Someone could get hurt otherwise - like you for instance."  
  
A comment that was, quite understandably, one that didn't particularly amuse Temari in the slightest. Growling to herself, the brown haired girl's hand fell to her waist, where she kept a pouch full of well-sharpened kunai. Her fingers located one of the cold metal object and, carefully, she slipped her middle finger through the ring at the end of the handle.  
  
"KYAAA!" She screamed, whirling around to face her tutor even as her hand whipped out - pulling the kunai from the pouch and slashing it across the area of his ankle. She smiled slightly when she saw the green material of his clothing begin to turn dark as blood from the shallow cut seeped out into it.  
  
Her smile soon left her face at about the same time as her tutor, ignoring the pain in his ankle, smashed his foot down onto the hand holding the kunai. Blood rushed from her face as she heard a dull cracking sound that was accompanied by an eye-opening explosion of pain coming from her hand.  
  
"I seem to recall," began her tutor, his eyebrows meshing together in a dark, and rather intimidating, scowl, "... It was agreed that no weapons were to be used at all." Even as he spoke, he ground his heel into Temari's hand, causing her to squeal in agony. "Whilst I do not particularly like doing something like this, I think it's something that should be done."  
  
"Y... you ba-bastard!" Growled the girl, "you c-complete a-and utter bastard!"  
  
"Insults will get you nowhere Sabakuno-san. This is a lesson you've got to learn." Her tutor smiled brightly and took his foot off of her broken hand. "This village is full of people who want to find any possible excuse to kill you - as well as those who don't need an excuse at all. The sooner you learn to behave, the better."  
  
"So..." Temari whispered, trying to focus through a haze of pain. "H-how does this make you a-any diff-diff-different from them?"  
  
"I stopped at only breaking your hand, which is something I know the medical-nin are pretty good at dealing with. Just remember, if I had wanted, I could have crushed your skull just as easily." He smiled again, the sunlight glinting off teeth that were whiter than white. "Now, lets get you to a medic. Okay Sabakuno-san?"  
  
"AAAAAAHHHH!" Naruto yelled happily as the he and the small group he was with reached the base of the main village gate - the famed entrance to Konoha. A few ninja guards peered over the ramparts atop the walls either side of the gate to see just what all the noise was. More than one of them, upon seeing Naruto, turned away in disgust. A few of them even spat at the boy then laughed amongst themselves as Naruto did his best to dodge them.  
  
Jiraiya frowned, but he kept silent alongside Shizune. Tsunade, on the other hand, was shaking with barely repressed fury. Suddenly she stood as still as a rock and took a deep calming breath. Then she, quite calmly, walked up to the wall upon which the spitting guards stood.  
  
"Naruto," She said, her voice level. "Remember that violence isn't always the answer." Suddenly, without warning she drew back and smashed one fist into the wall, the impact of which causing the ninja above to literally be flung off of it with some force.  
  
"It is, however," She added, "Often a lot quicker, and easier than any other way."  
  
The two guards at the base of the gate, quite wisely, said absolutely nothing as the group passed them by and strolled into the village.  
  
"This is stupid." Grumbled Temari, now accompanied by Sakura. "Who do those bastards think they are, huh?"  
  
"Aaaah..." Sakura sweated slightly. She had run into Temari in the nearby hospital. Whilst Temari had asked why she was there, Sakura was particularly unwilling to give any reason for her presence. In the end Temari just shrugged and gave up since, for all she knew, it could have just been that Sakura was having a rather bad, as men put it, time of the month.  
  
"Bah. It's not like I give a damn. They're all bastards!" The tall girl turned to face the hospital and shook her good fist in the air as she and Sakura walked away. "Bastards! The lot of you!"  
  
"... Geez." Sakura gave Temari a flat stare, "Couldn't you have just left without having the last word? Especially a last word like that."  
  
The taller girl snorted in annoyance. "They deserved it! Charging rates like that just to fix a broken hand!" She glared at her hand, swathed as it was in plaster. "Though... at least they do good work," She mumbled after a while as she poked at the plaster cast with her other hand. "If I was back home I would be expecting to have to wait almost eight weeks for this to heal up. Whilst you people can get it fixed in just under a month."  
  
"Well," drawled Sakura, "We did have a legendary medic here once, they say she bullied the third and fourth into putting an awful lot of resources into the research of medical practices and jutsu." The pink-haired genin paused and stared sadly at the ground. "If she were here, then maybe she could heal Sasuke."  
  
The two walked along in silence through some of the more crowded Konoha streets. Whilst Sakura seemed ignorant, Temari was painfully aware of the way the throngs of people parted to let them through and how every so often it was possible to hear muted whispers and insults directed at herself.  
  
"Sakura..." Temari's quiet whisper caused her companion to stare at her in confusion. The sand-nin girl almost never called her 'Sakura', instead preferring to refer to her by her surname 'Haruno'. "Why..." She continued, seemingly a little unsure of herself. "... Why don't you hate me?"  
  
That was a rather good question actually. One that Sakura herself was more than a little bewildered by herself. When she had first seen the tall, blonde girl back in Naruto's home that first day, Sakura had hated her just as much as any other Leaf-nin would. When the two of them had been forced to work together by Asuma and Iruka, who Sakura swore she was going to have to kick for making her work as a teacher, they had been forced to at least tolerate each other for the duration of the working day.  
  
Then, one day, Temari had followed her to a little tea-shop she knew about for lunch. The tea-shop was one of those semi-modern ones that served a variety of different types of foreign-style drinks along with the more traditional teas that were favored in the Fire country. Sakura had ordered her usual tea, and a small bun to eat. Moments late Temari had promptly sat down at the same table and ordered a Wind country style coffee that, to Sakura, seemed to have much more in common with tar than coffee. Heck, the stuff was so thick that you could have probably turned the cup upside-down and still not spill a drop of it.  
  
The surprising things was, though, that Temari had paid - both for her own and Sakura's orders.  
  
A few days later the two returned to the tea-shop and, not wanting to owe Temari for last time, Sakura had paid for the both of them.  
  
The same thing happened a while later, with Temari paying.  
  
Then Sakura paid the next time.  
  
Now it was an almost daily routine for the two girls, a break from teaching at the tea shop in which the alternated who paid for what they ordered. And, so far, neither of them had abused this by ordering something ridiculously expensive.  
  
"In truth," Sakura stated after a moment, "I don't really know." She smiled slightly, "But I guess it's because, well, I know there's nothing to hate you personally for. When you did what you did it was because you were told to, not because you chose to."  
  
"Oh." Temari stared at the ground for a few moments before looking up and smirking at Sakura. "I guess you aren't as-"Temari's voice was drowned out by a deep bass rumble from the direction the main village gate. In an instant the streets were clear as everyone reacted to what could potentially be an attack. Those of Jounin level headed towards the source of the noise whilst those chuunin that were present darted too and fro, quickly escorting non-ninja merchants and visitors to safe hiding places.  
  
The two genin, one sand and one leaf, glanced at each other and nodded before vanishing in a blur as they leapt away in the direction of the academy. Though they didn't yet know the situation, the two knew that in the event of a possible attack their first priority was to escort the villages children to a safe place. In truth, Sakura felt slightly proud of this responsibility as, in the normal course of things, genin were expected to seek shelter. Her responsibility as a teacher, even if only a temporary one, overrode this and left her with a much responsibility as a chuunin at least.  
  
Temari, on the other hand, was used to far more responsibility than this and so gave it no real thought.  
  
Well.  
  
Okay.  
  
Maybe she was a little worried about her broken hand, and how it would be a hinderance should combat occur. And yes, she was also worried about the fact that she lacked her fan, and thus was limited to smaller weapons – none of which fitted her combat style at all. She was also worried about the children, and how should she have to fight she would be in the vulnerable position of having to defend a large group of people who would panic and probably try to scatter.  
  
All in all, Temari was just plain worried and more than a little scared.  
  
But she wouldn't show it. She didn't dare to.  
  
Jiraiya sighed to himself in exasperation. Around him stood a horde of jounin-level ninja, all of whom were trying to look threatening, though some of the older ones looked puzzled. A short distance away, Tsunade was arguing angrily with Ibiki, the number one interrogator, and judging by his expression she was winning.  
  
Naruto, meanwhile, was laughing his proverbial ass off at the cause of this whole situation. Namely the section of wall that Tsunade had punched a few moments ago - which was now laying upon the crushed remains of a small guard hut.  
  
"You'd have thought by now," Murmured the Toad Sennin, "That Tsunade would be more capable of controlling that freakish strength of hers. Or at least controlling that ridiculously short temper."  
  
"Ah..." Shizune, who was somewhat scared by the sheer number of sharp objects being aimed at the group, twitched slightly. "She's trying her best... really. I think."  
  
Jiraiya smirked, "That's true enough, the old Tsunade would have jumped up and smacked some sense into those guards personally."  
  
"Oh yes," Agreed Tsunade's assistant, "This almost gave me a heart attack, I shudder to think what I would suffer if Tsunade had committed assault against a guard."  
  
"Bah!" Naruto snorted from where he now sat on the dusty floor. "They got what was coming to them! That's all!" The boy folded his arms and glared pointedly at the group of guards, who even now were receiving a grilling from a Jounin. A familiar one at that. Naruto was sure he'd seen him, but just couldn't place the name, he was Shikamaru's tutor – Ass-something. That much the blonde boy could remember.  
  
Whatever his name, he was sure laying into those guards. Odd that, a Jounin would usually leave such discipline to whoever was in charge of that guard unit at the time.  
  
"Oi... Ero-sennin," Naruto asked after a few moments of looking around at the gathered shinobi. "Can we go now? I wanna go tell Sakura that everything is gonna be alright 'cuz she's probably really worried about Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei..."  
  
"Ah?" Jiraiya looked puzzled for a moment, then smirked slightly. "The pink haired girl? Sure. We'll be here for a little while so you might as well go ahead. Shizune, you want to go with him?"  
  
Shizune smiled and shook her head. "If it's all the same, I think I had better stay here and try to keep Tsunade out of getting herself into any more trouble." She grinned and reached out to ruffle Naruto's hair, "You go tell your friend, then go find your fiancée okay? I'm sure Tsunade will want to meet her."  
  
"Sure!" Naruto grinned back then vanished in a puff of smoke, reappearing upon a rooftop just above the crowd. "I'll meet you in Sasuke's hospital room!" He yelled down, waiting for Jiraiya to nod in confirmation before speeding off to find Sakura and, after her, Temari.  
  
"Well, Well, Well." Whispered a light female voice. "He's back already huh? Now isn't that just perfect."  
  
Unseen, Yamanaka Ino left the hiding place she had ducked into when the wall had collapsed and sped along the ground towards her family's flower shop. With any luck she'd be able to contact Hinata and rustle up a suitable outfit for her to wear when, that evening, they would put 'operation – Get Naruto, part two' into practice.  
  
"Now, won't Naruto be so surprised?" She asked herself, a tiny smile upon her face. Of course, this time she herself would have to take steps to ensure that Hinata didn't throw herself into her role in the plan with too much enthusiasm. Really. It was good that the Hyuuga girl was developing a confident streak, but she had yet to learn that there was a difference between confidence and stupid recklessness.  
  
Silly girl.  
  
Adorable, but still silly.

Authors notes 

minimerc did a fanart based on my fic! - - but this DAMN formatting keeps wiping out the link to it.

As soon as i work out how to get it to show i'll put the link up. . goddamit. Until then, thanks anyway minimerc! -

Go I procrastinated far, far too much. -.- Sorry, sorry. But like, here it is and stuff.  
  
... no, I'm not too proud of it, but I felt that yes I can stop the chapter here quite happily and I really don't want to keep dragging this loooong procrastination spell out any longer. So I stopped here and, well. Here it is.  
  
Sorry. grovel grovel forgive meeeee...  
  
Lackey H, groveling for mercy!  
  
PS: anyone else do any fanart for this fic? If you have please tell me XD


	15. Go read the rewrite Betrothal R

Okay, this is a message mostly for the benefit of everyone who has story alerts active on this particular fic -

As i mentioned before, i was going to re-write betrothal... I can now, with much pleasure, state IT IS DONE. ... Or at least chapter one of it is.

Under the title Betrothal R, you can find it in my authors profile (i would link to it here but... er... we all know how badly Ff net responds to anything that looks vaguely like a link... ehehehe... )

As to what will happen to this, the original Betrothal, I don't know – it might end up that i'll be told to remove it because... well, it is the same fic as the re-write after all and stuff... Though i would like to keep it up here for archival reasons XD (If not i do have backups... and i suppose eventually i could get me my own site or something maybe... i dunno)

So anyway, go enjoy Betrothal R XD (or not, the choice is yours)

- Lackey H, bowing out of the original Betrothal


End file.
